Excel hack

Like a lot of people, I think, I don't particular like the chart functions in Excel. But this Excel hack is so cool, and quite easy to do. My first attempt at doing this took about five minutes (see image to the right).

What is additional cool is that you can use the "conditional formatting" tool in Excel if you would want to make bars of a certain length different colors. I tried to color code the bars in my table by whether they were above or below the mean. Couldn't quite get it to work, but I'm still trying...

Data visualization

Seems like the hottest thing in the data world is using Web 2.0 technologies to allow the average user to visualize data. A number of sites allow users to upload data sets and experiment with the visual presentation of them. Try:

• Swivel
• Data360
• Many Eyes

Also, try reading some of the reviews of these sites here and here. It's worth noting that these sites seem to be coming out of the Edward-Tufte tradition. If you're into Tufte, you might want to check out the website devoted to sparklines and think about buying this.