How to Create Interactive Charts with Dynamic Elements in Excel
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This tutorial will demonstrate how to create interactive charts with dynamic elements in all versions of Excel: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019.
In this Article
- Excel Interactive / Dynamic Charts – Free Template Download
- Sample Data
- How to Create a Dynamic Chart Title
- How to Create a Dynamic Chart Range
- How to Create an Interactive Chart with a Drop-Down List
- Step #1: Lay the groundwork.
- Step #2: Add the drop-down list.
- Step #3: Link the drop-down list to the worksheet cells.
- Step #4: Set up the chart data table.
- Step #5: Set up a chart based on the dynamic chart data.
- How to Create an Interactive Chart with a Scroll Bar
- Step #1: Lay the groundwork.
- Step #2: Draw the scroll bar.
- Step #2: Link the scroll bar to the worksheet data.
- Step #3: Create the chart data table.
- Step #4: Create a chart based on the helper table.
- Download Excel Interactive / Dynamic Charts Template
Excel Interactive / Dynamic Charts – Free Template Download
Download our free Interactive / Dynamic Charts Template for Excel.
An interactive chart is a graph that allows the user to control which data series should be illustrated in the chart, making it possible to display or hide data by using form controls. These come in many shapes and forms, ranging from option buttons to scroll bars and drop-down lists.
In turn, making some chart elements dynamic—such as the chart title—makes it possible to automate the process of updating your graphs whenever you add or remove items from the underlying source data.
So, creating interactive charts with dynamic elements allows you to kill two birds with one stone.
To start off with, interactive charts help you neatly display massive amounts of data with only one graph:
In addition, turning some chart elements from static to dynamic saves countless hours in the long run and prevents you from ever forgetting to update the chart whenever you alter your data table.
That being said, this tutorial is a crash course into advanced chart-building techniques in Excel: you will learn how to create interactive charts both with a drop-down list and with a scroll bar as well as master the ways to make your chart title and chart data range dynamic.
Sample Data
To show you what’s what, we need some raw data to