Excel - How to Make a Butterfly or Tornado Chart - Episode 1933
Microsoft Excel Tutorial: How to make a butterfly chart in Excel. These are also known as Tornado chart, Sensitivity chart, Barbell chart, Two-sided bar chart, paired bar chart, diverging bar chart,
Comparative bar chart, or a Bifocal chart.
Welcome to episode 1933 of the MrExcel podcast. In this episode, we will be discussing how to create a Butterfly Chart in Excel. This topic was inspired by a question from one of my seminar attendees, Eric, who needed to create a Butterfly Chart for his data. At first, I was confused by the term "Butterfly Chart" as I had never heard of it before. But after further discussion with Eric, I realized that what he needed was actually a Paired Bar Chart.
To create a Butterfly Chart in Excel, we will be using a combination of conditional formatting and data bars. First, we will set up a table with the categories in the middle column and the corresponding values for Pounds and Dollars in the left and right columns, respectively. Then, we will use conditional formatting and data bars to create the right side of the chart. This can be done in Excel 2007, but there is one important setting that was not available at the time.
To make the chart truly resemble a butterfly, we need to adjust the bar direction and show only the bars for both the left and right sides. This can be done by going to Conditional Formatting, Manage Rules, and editing the rule to change the bar direction to right-to-left. We will also select the option to show only the bars for both sides. This will give us the desired butterfly shape for our chart.
I have previously seen this type of chart referred to as a Paired Bar Chart in my "Charts and Graphs" book. It is a great way to compare two sets of data, such as different flavors of ice cream preferred by adults and children. Even when the data has different orders of magnitude, the Butterfly Chart allows us to easily spot any discrepancies or patterns. So, for Eric in Miami, I hope this tutorial on how to create a Butterfly Chart in Excel is helpful. Thank you for tuning in to the MrExcel podcast, and I'll see you next time for another netcast.
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Table of Contents:
(00:00) Explanation of Butterfly Chart
(00:22) Initial confusion about the term "Butterfly Chart"
(00:37) Description of a Paired Bar Chart
(00:48) Using conditional formatting in Excel 2010 to create a Butterfly Chart
(01:31) Adjusting bar direction and appearance for a more accurate chart
(02:30) Example of a Butterfly Chart in action
(03:00) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm
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Eric in Miami asked me how to create a butterfly chart in Excel. After trying to figure out what a butterfly chart is, I realized he wanted what I call a paired bar chart. Starting in Excel 2010, the simple way to do this is with Data Bars in conditional formatting.
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