Discussion on:

Message 17 of 56
5 Votes
+ -
Nothing Luddite about it. Selecting a chart is like composing a paragraph
Pie chart - nothing there that can't be shown at least as clearly in another form.
Radar - agree that most users should avoid, but when useful, it's very useful.
Donut - only benefit over pie is that it wastes less ink
3D - there are no useful 3D charts or chart effects in Excel, unless 'obfuscating the truth' is considered a benefit.
Surface - can be outstanding, but Excel's implementation leaves much to be desired. The default tesselation pattern and "artsy" default color palette make it difficult to interpret. The 2D version as a temperature or contour map can be very good, given substantial editing to overcome Excel's default settings.

Choice of chart format is not simply an aesthetic choice. It's about communicating information. If the chart can't communicate the intended message more clearly than the table of data it represents, it fails the test of utility. Pie and all of Excel's 3D options fail that test.
Posted by RickGTOC
10th Nov 2011