Sparklines: tiny charts show the big picture

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Judi Hurlock, who writes Excel online training for Office.com.

I write free training courses for Office.com. My job is to learn new features, and the tried and true, and to pass that learning on to you.

Recently I heard about a new feature in Excel 2010 called sparklines. I couldn’t tell just by the name what the feature was. But when I found out that a sparkline is a tiny chart, the proverbial light bulb turned on, and I realized this was something I definitely wanted to write about.

Sparklines fit right next or near to their data source. There are Column and Line sparklines, as well as Win/Loss sparklines. Sparklines take just seconds to create, and instantly show you what’s up, what’s down, or who’s winning or losing.

If you have 10 or 15 minutes, try the course Sparklines: Use tiny charts to show data trends and let me know what you think about sparklines. And if you have other ideas or requests for training courses, add a comment and let me know. We’re always looking for ideas!