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Courses/Office Productivity/MS Excel

Maximizing Excel Charts

Master Excel charting with automation, dynamic data, and specialized techniques to transform your static data into compelling, self-updating visual insights.

Created byDavid Ringstrom
4.8
(8 reviews)
BeginnerUpdated Oct 23, 2025
Maximizing Excel Charts

What You'll Learn

check_circleAutomate charts for dynamic data visualization in Excel.
check_circleCreate dynamic charts using Excel tables.
check_circleDesign interactive charts with slicers and linked titles.
check_circleTroubleshoot common chart issues like missing dates.
check_circleMaster advanced chart types, including Waterfall and Combo.
check_circleImplement Sparklines for impactful in-cell data trends.

About This Course

Unlock the full potential of your data visualization with "Maximizing Excel Charts." This comprehensive course, led by David Ringstorff, CPA, is designed to transform you from a basic chart creator to an Excel charting expert, eliminating repetitive tasks and introducing powerful automation techniques.

You'll start by mastering the fundamentals of chart creation, then quickly move into making your charts dynamic and self-updating. Discover how to leverage Excel tables for self-expanding charts, implement cutting-edge dynamic array functions (for Excel 2021 and Microsoft 365 users) to build interactive charts that adjust criteria on the fly, and create rolling charts that automatically display the latest data. Learn to link chart titles to worksheet cells for fully dynamic descriptions and troubleshoot common charting issues, like Excel's tendency to interpolate missing dates.

The course further explores the power of pivot charts, demonstrating how to summarize complex data into intuitive visualizations and interact with them using slicers. You'll gain crucial insights into the differences between charts based on normal ranges versus Excel tables, highlighting how tables can save you from manual updates. Finally, delve into specialty charts, including:

  • Waterfall Charts: Master their creation and overcome the unique challenges of setting totals for effective financial visualization.
  • Combo Charts: Combine different data types on a single chart using secondary axes for richer insights.
  • Sparklines: Learn to create these powerful in-cell charts for compact trend analysis, understanding their specific idiosyncrasies for optimal use.

Through practical, step-by-step examples and clear explanations, David will guide you through each technique, first with detailed PowerPoint slides and then with live demonstrations in Excel. By the end of this course, you'll be equipped with the skills to create compelling, efficient, and professional charts that communicate your data with unparalleled clarity.

Your Instructor

David Ringstrom
David Ringstrom

CPA, Author, Professional Excel Spreadsheet Trainer and Consultant

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star1,130 reviews

David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is the author of Microsoft 365 Excel for Dummies, and a nationally recognized instructor who has taught over 2,500 live webinars. His Excel courses are based on over 30 years of consulting and teaching experience. David’s catchphrase is “Either you work Excel, or it works you,” so he focuses on what he sees users don’t, but should know about Microsoft Excel. His goal is to empower you to use Excel more effectively. David has authored or co-authored 10 books, including Exploring Microsoft Excel's Hidden Treasures, QuickBooks Online for Dummies, and Idiot's Guide to Introductory Accounting.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

What Students Are Saying

4.8
Student's Choice
8 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.