Want to visualize your Microsoft Excel data quickly, but you don't want to delegate all your resources to make charts? Sparklines might just be what you need.

What Are Sparklines in Excel?

Using Sparklines, you can visualize the data from multiple cells within a single cell. Sparklines are a quick and easy way to show overall trends without taking up much room. These Sparklines are small enough to fit in a single cell.

Sparklines are still charts, but they have limited functionality compared to standard Excel charts. With all this being said, let's get down to creating Sparklines.

How to Add Sparklines in Excel

To add Sparklines in Excel, you first need data to work with.

Let's start by inserting some sample data into an Excel spreadsheet. The average temperature of autumn and winter in Reykjavik is a good example.

Month

September

October

November

December

January

February

Temperature

11

4

3

2

0

0

Once you add these values to your excel sheet, it's time to create Sparklines for this trend.

  1. Click a cell next to your last value where you want to display the Sparklines.
  2. Go to the Insert tab, and in the Sparklines section, click one of the three chart types: Line, Column, or Win/Loss.
  3. For this example, select Line. The Create Sparklines dialog will pop up.
  4. In the Create Sparklines dialog, click the Data Range placeholder and select your data cells.
  5. Next, for the Location Range, select the cell where you want to display the Sparklines. This can only be a single cell.
  6. After you've chosen the Data Range and Location Range, click OK.
Choose a data and location range to create your sparklines in excel.

You can now see a tiny graph of your data in the cell you had selected.

Customizing Sparklines in Excel

Sparklines aren't as complex as actual Excel charts, but they are still customizable to some extent. You can change the color, decide what markers become visible, and even plot Sparklines by date.

Related: How to Create Self-Updating Excel Charts

Sparkline Types

There are three types of Sparklines you can choose from:

  1. Line: The line chart displays your data in a series of points called Markers. The greater the value of a marker, the further it's going to be from the X-axis. A line connects these markers, eventually forming a line chart.
  2. Column: Each column of your chart consists of rectangles that represent your data. The size of these rectangles varies according to the value of your data.
  3. Win/Loss: The Win/Loss chart distinguishes negative and positive values from each other by putting positive values above negative ones. In this chart, it doesn't matter how great or small the values are, the only counting factor is if they're positive or negative. This chart shows zeros as blank spaces.
There are three types of Sparklines in Excel.

Deciding What to Show

By default, all points in a Sparkline chart are stylized in the same way. However, you can alter the settings to discriminate the turning points from others.

  1. Select your Sparkline graph.
  2. From the ribbon, go to the Design tab.
  3. In the Show section of the Design tab, check what points you want to show in the Sparkline graph.

In a Line chart, they will show up as marked points. But in a Column or Win/Loss chart, you'll see that the color of the rectangle or square depicting that data set changes to another color.

Styling Your Sparkline

You can change the color of your Sparkline in Excel. This consists of two components: the color of the Sparklines and the color of the Markers. Excel provides some preset styles but you can also pick your own combination.

  1. Select your Sparklines graph.
  2. Go to the Design tab, and from the Style section, click Sparkline Color.
  3. Select a color for your Sparkline. In a line chart, this will be the color of the line connecting the points. In Column or Win/Loss charts, this will be the color of the rectangles or squares, respectively.
  4. Next, click on Marker color, select a point and then pick a color. You can set different colors for each point in your graph.

You can also make the X-axis visible on your Sparkline graph by displaying a horizontal line that shows zero:

  1. Select your Sparklines graph.
  2. From the ribbon, go to the Design tab.
  3. In the Group sections, click on Axis. A drop-down menu will appear.
  4. In the drop-down menu, click on Show Axis.

Since a Sparkline chart fits right into a cell, to scale a Sparkline chart, you just need to change the row height and the column width of the cell, which is housing the Sparkline.

You can change the style of your Sparkline from the Design tab.

Sorting Your Data in a Sparkline

In an ordinary Sparkline graph, the data is sorted alphabetically by cell name. In other words, the data is sorted left-to-right if it is in a row or top-to-bottom if it is in a column. However, you can also sort the data by date.

  1. Select the cells that you want to input date values in.
  2. In the Home tab, from the Number section, click the drop-down menu.
  3. From the drop-down menu, choose either Long Date or Short Date.
  4. In the cells, enter the date values.
  5. Select your Sparkline graph and go to the Design tab.
  6. From the Group section, click Axis.
  7. In the drop-down menu, click Date Axis Type. This will bring up the Sparkline Date Range dialog.
  8. In the Sparkline Date Range dialog, select the data cells.

Now the graph will re-plot, and the data will sort by date, ignoring the right to left or up to down order.

Select your date range for the Sparkline graph.

Related: How to Create a Flowchart in Microsoft Excel

Another adjustment you could make is to have the Sparkline graph plot the data right-to-left instead of left-to-right. This means that the first value will be on the far left and the last on the far right.

  1. Select your Sparkline graph.
  2. Go to the Design tab > click on Axis.
  3. In the drop-down menu, select Plot Data From Right-to-Left.

Visualize Your Excel Data With Sparklines

You can use Sparklines in Microsoft Excel to get a quick picture of your data. Making use of Excel charts can further assist you with organizing and interpreting your data.