We were brainstorming what type of map to make.

• Maybe a color-coded map, showing how many grants they gave out in each state?
• Maybe a one-color map, showing which states they worked in at all?

Both of these maps are possible in good ol’ Excel. Here’s how.

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:09 What You’ll Learn: 2 Types of Maps in Excel
• 0:49 1st Map: Setting Up the Table
• 1:05 The “Convert to Geography” Button
• 1:53 Inserting the Brand New Map
• 2:19 Recommended Edits for Color-Coded Maps
• 2:46 2nd Map: One-Color Map
• 3:14 Recommended Edits for One-Color Maps
• 4:01 The Finished Products
• 4:08 Get In Touch

Download the File

Download the Excel file here: https://depictdatastudio.gumroad.com/l/MapsInExcel

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Ann Emery. Welcome back to Dataviz On The Go, the series where I make quick tutorials for you in my spare moments between workshops.

And in this tutorial, we’re going to make this two different types of maps inside Excel. This is fake data, but inspired by a real project, inspired by a foundation that I work with, and we were brainstorming what type of map we wanted to make.

So I’m going to show you how to make maps in Excel. They’re new ish. A lot of people don’t even know that they exist. So I’m going to give you the gist of what you need to do behind the scenes to make this work. And I’m going to show you how to make a color coded map with a dark light contrast. And a one color map.

As you can see from the tables up above, we have to set up the tables a little bit differently to get these two different types of maps. All right, on to the demo. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to set up our table and we’ll pretend that we’re working in these different states. And [00:01:00] which one should I do?

I don’t know. It doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. Well, let’s do like Washington state. We can do California. And then the key thing is after you type the third one, You’re gonna cross your fingers. You’re gonna hope that you see this magical button right here. Do you see it? I know it’s small on my screen. Can you see it?

It says convert to geography ding ding ding That’s the one we want you’re gonna click that button because without it the map might not work Might not work. Okay, so click that magic button. It’s gonna add these little map icons that are Again, the key, the magic that you need to avoid any issues. Okay.

And then we’re going to call this like number of grants funded, something like that, you know, whatever your number is, whatever your percentage is, whatever your currency is in real life. And let’s just put in some sample placeholder data here. Then you’re going to highlight your whole table. You’re going to go up to the insert tab and you’re going to grab [00:02:00] a filled map, AKA color coded map, heat map, choropleth map, uh, filled map is Excel’s lingo for this, where it gives you a dark light gradation, right?

It draws attention to the darker colors here. You have to do a little bit of formatting for this. You would probably want to. You know, make the font bigger, make the font darker. You get to choose where you put the legend. You can fill in your own brand colors here. You can decide if you want the states where you didn’t work to be gray, maybe you want them to be white, you get editing power over all that.

If you have questions about the edits, What’s possible, how to do it. Comment below this video. I will help you out. I’ll make a longer tutorial on this if you want. Okay. And then the other type of map would be if you just want to show states where you worked, you know, which is different. Like it’s like where we worked versus didn’t, you have to put in the same number for every state.

You can do a one, one [00:03:00] means, yeah, we worked there versus zero would mean. We didn’t. We didn’t work there. It’s binary. You’re turning it into a binary data set, therefore a binary map. Now on the binary maps, I do recommend a little bit of fine tuning here. Like you wouldn’t, why would you have a legend for the binary map?

That would be really weird. Why would you just have a one here? That’d be silly. And then by default, Excel is going to choose kind of a, a mid. Shade, this is my brand purple. My theme colors are filled in, of course. By default, it’s going to be kind of light, which I don’t think stands out enough against the gray.

So I’d recommend right clicking on any of these filled states. You go to the bottom of the menu, format data series. And then when you open up the series color toggle, you get to choose what fills in. I’m going to choose the main. Accent one color for the lowest and the highest because I just want it to be a one color map, right?

Check out that color contrast. Isn’t that a [00:04:00] little bit nicer your finished products again with a little bit more fine tuning and editing? Would look something like this. Give it a try. Let me know what types of issues do you run into? What types of maps are you curious about making? And then of course, for when you make these for your real data, get in touch.

I’d love to see how you adapt this for your workplace. 3, 2, 1 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share!

_________________

I work at a grantmaking organization and it is my job to update the board three times a year on the grant applications we are considering for awards, the grantmaking budget, and other information.

You will see below an example of the grants docket (slate of grant proposals under consideration) as well as a grantmaking budget summary. I am almost too embarrassed to show these!

Fortunately, after completing about 70% of the Dashboard Design course, I was able to revitalize a tired spreadsheet into an information powerhouse and a colorful budget visualization into a professional presentation.

It’s the same information, just presented differently!

The Docket

Before: Gridlines Galore and No Visualizations

This docket was printed on 11×17 paper for easier readability and called a “placemat”.

Gridlines, some highlighted cells in yellow to draw the eye.

A lot of information and a bit overwhelming to take in.

Applications were presented alphabetical by organization and not grouped in any way.

After: Fewer Columns, Bigger Impact

When I started the Dashboard Design course with Ann, my intention was to revamp our organizational dashboard and not even this document (once I get that done, I will have to write another blog!).

But the course showed me what little changes I could make to have a big impact.

Although we do not compare numbers over time in this document as it is just a list of our applications, I was still able to use some helpful visualizations, icons, colors, and conditional formatting to tell a story.

A summary of the changes made:

• Added logo and subtitle
• Used brand colors in headings and their corresponding icon
• Minimized the use of gridlines
• Removed highlighting of a column but used font colors for key info
• Grouped applicants together by type of grant (general operating vs. project)
• Hid the column with the organization budget, but added an icon set of pie charts via conditional formatting
• Correct alignment for numbers vs. text
• Deviation bar visualization to show the percent change of the current request from their previous award instead of just expecting the reader to do the math
• Added a budget summary chart at the bottom

This resulted in a much more well-received document with lots of compliments from board members!

I have begun creating a cohesive aesthetic for all the documents I produce for the board to give them the information they need but in the most streamlined way possible.

The Budget

In 2019 I developed the below budget visualization to up my game a bit from a spreadsheet that board members had a hard time understanding.

This was an improvement over the previous version, but Ann’s course challenged me to turn it up a few notches.

Before:

After:

There were not many “big” changes to this in terms of conditional formatting or visualizations, but it has definitely been toned down.

The biggest change was that I replaced the text explanations with icons to illustrate where we are in the budget, which the board members appreciated.

As you can see, there is that cohesive title, subtitle, font, and color choice to keep the branding in line.

Take the Time to Take the Course!

I am pleased with what I am able to do now that I have completed Dashboard Design. The lessons were fun and I was able to put my skills to the test in a matter of weeks!

Now I am enrolled in Simple Spreadsheets which will really provide me a good base as my role stretches me to do more community engagement data evaluation and learning. Thank you, Ann!

Connect with Kristen

LinkedIn: @summerskristen

Lift every Voice 216: https://www.facebook.com/216lift

Saint Luke’s Foundation: https://www.facebook.com/saintlukesfoundationcleveland