Show percentages with a little color (Excel 2007/2010)

Percentages interpret your data as smaller parts of a larger piece. This is why pie charts are often a popular way to demonstrate percentages. However, if you want to conserve space and still present an attractive, effective visual of your percentage data, Excel 2007 offers a great alternative.

On the Home ribbon, in the Styles panel, there’s a Conditional Formatting icon that opens a shortcut menu. In this menu, you’ll see a formatting option called Data Bars. When you select a data range and then apply data bars (in any of a wide range of colors), the bars visually demonstrate the percentage or number in comparison to the other numbers in the data range. If you widen or contract the column’s width, the data bars remain proportionate.

The best part about the data bars is that they take seconds to apply — but it looks like they took hours of careful formatting.