School's back in session, so I have mental space for newsletters again!

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Fixing Lonely Line Charts

This article is inspired by a recent consulting project.

Not real numbers, but a real scenario: A line chart with a single line looked so... boring. So lonely. So plain.

An easy fix is to shade the area underneath the line.

Now, it's got more oomph!

(In technical terms, there are more preattentive attributes to grab your eyeballs and attention.)

Better yet, try a line chart + shading.

(In Excel, I created something called a combo chart.)

This one's my personal favorite!

Here are all 3 options.

You like the line + shading too, right?

For more information on the why's and how's, you can check out the full blog post.

Read the article

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Download My Excel File

Want to explore behind the scenes?

Here's the Excel file I used for that article: AnnKEmery_Lonely-Line-into-Area.xlsx​

As a newsletter subscriber, you get it for free. Enjoy!

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More Quick Tips Like This?

I'm teaching a dozen workshops this month, so I'll see tons of real participant examples that can be anonymized and turned into tutorials like this one.

Do you like quick before-and-after visualization tips like this? Or would you prefer a single lengthy, detailed article? Reply anytime and let me know.

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