Chart, graphics add-in for Excel

**Paul-NYS** · 11-23-2012, 11:23 AM

Hi
Does anyone know if either Microsoft or any other company makes an add-in for Excel 2010 that allows for better charts/graphs creation than the standard software provides?

Paul

**dilipandey** · 11-24-2012, 03:12 AM

Hi Paul,

As per me, You can customize the available charts in Excel in number of ways.. but you can not introduce a entirely new chart. Are you looking for new charts or you are looking for a easy way (better way) to create charts ? Thanks.

Regards,
DILIPandey

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**lmp** · 11-26-2012, 05:16 AM

Hello,

As dilipandey has said, Excel charts can be customised to the nth degree and then some. You can also save a chart as a template to save you the steps to re-create the same look and feel.

What exactly would you like to achieve that you cannot find in Excel?

If you are after a different way of charting, you may want to take a look at Tableau. It's not an add-in to Excel, but an independent software package. They have a free trial, but ultimately, you'll have to purchase it.

Stephen Few uses Tableau as an alternative to Excel, and he is the yard stick for all things charting, these days, so if he uses Tableau, it must be worth the fee.

**MrShorty** · 11-26-2012, 10:41 AM

I'm not aware of any that operate as "add-ins" within Excel. Those that I've come across are stand alone programs (like DPlot or Grapher or Tableau that Imp mentioned). These are usually quite capable of using data in an Excel sheet to create the graphs.

**Jon_Peltier** · 11-27-2012, 09:25 AM

While there have been no new chart types in Excel since about Excel 97, its charting engine is flexible enough that you can fake it (with a little imagination). Here is an incomplete list of tutorials on my blog:

Clustered and Stacked Column and Bar Charts*
Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts)*
Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots)*

*I have made commercial add-ins for Excel which simplify creation of some of these charts. I don't want this to sound like a shameless plug, but you asked.