Show Data Trends with Tiny Sparkline Charts in Microsoft Excel 2010

Provided by Molly Pell, Senior Systems Analyst

A new feature in Microsoft Excel 2010 lets you insert tiny charts, or Sparklines, into worksheet cells. Sparklines are a powerful way to show a quick snapshot of data trends.

Inserting a Sparkline

To insert a Sparkline:

Select the cell where you want to insert the mini chart.
On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, choose the desired Sparkline type in the Sparklines group:

In the Data box, type the range of the cells that contain the data on which to base the Sparkline:

After you insert the Sparkline, a new tab appears on the Ribbon. The Sparkline Tools tab allows you to select from a variety of formatting options, including the chart type, colors and styles, etc.