Stacked Area Chart in Excel: A Complete Guide

A Stacked Area Chart is one of the best-suited visualization designs you can use to display the trend of key variables in your data.

In other words, you can use the chart to track the trend of key metrics over time.

There are many types of charts and graphs but this chart is amazingly easy to read and interpret because of more space available in this chart different colors can present different data points by showing a trend as well.

If your goal is to access a ready-to-go and visually stunning Stacked Area Graph, you’ve got to think beyond Excel’s inbuilt charts. The solution is not to ditch the spreadsheet app you’ve used for many years.

You have an option of supercharging it with a particular add-in access ready-to-use Stacked Area Chart in Excel.

In this blog, you’ll learn the following:

• What is a Stacked Area Chart?
• What Does a Stacked Area Chart Look Like?
• How To Read a Stacked Area Chart in Excel?
• How to Create a Stacked Area Chart in Excel?
• How to Edit the Stacked Area Chart in Excel?
• Wrap Up

What is a Stacked Area Chart?

A Stacked Area Chart in Excel is a visualization design you can use to display trends and patterns of two or more variables in data. Besides, it shows relationships between variables over time.

The chart is amazingly easy to read and interpret.

Each area under the line in the chart is shaded from its peak to a common baseline. The top line corresponds to the aggregate value when summing across all groups.

You can use the chart to:

• Track trends and patterns over time.
• Display part to whole relationships between key data point.

The height of each curve shows the overall trend of the variable under study.

How to read a Stacked Area Chart in Excel should never be a stressful affair for you. Keep reading to discover more.

What Does a Stacked Area Chart Look Like?

Take a look at the table below.

Can you provide a coherent story of what’s going on?

Note the difference after visualizing the data using the Stacked Area Chart in Excel.

• The overall sales revenue was on an uptrend pattern between April and September before taking a nosedive in October.
• All the products (mobile, TV, batteries, charger, and cable) experienced a slight growth in March before declining.

How to create Stacked Area Chart in Excel should never waste your valuable time. Keep reading to discover more.

How To Read a Stacked Area Chart in Excel?

By having focus on the colors and the shape of the curve you will know the importance of data visualization. Curves on an uptrend depict growth. On the other hand, curves on a downtrend show decline.

Pay special attention to the largest and smallest slices based on the color.

The Stacked Area Chart also displays part-to-whole relationship insights into raw data. In other words, you can also track totals across key categories in your data using the visualization design.

Factors to Look at When Using the Stacked Area Chart

Avoid focusing on the slopes of the colored curves because they may distort your findings.

Secondly, focus on the largest and smallest slices based on the color.

Excel has built-in charts you can use to extract answers from your data. However, the tool does not natively support the Stacked Area Chart in Excel. In other words, you’ll never find the chart’s template in the freemium tool.

The most viable option available for you is to supercharge Excel with a particular add-in called ChartExpo.

So, what is ChartExpo?

ChartExpo is cloud-hosted, which makes it extremely light. You have a 100% guarantee that your computer or Excel won’t be slowed down.

Besides, you can export your charts in SVG.

The cutting-edge application does not require coding or programming skills, unlike other data visualization add-ons. More so, it has an ultra-friendly UI for everyone to use.

This tool comes pre-loaded with a ready-made Stacked Area Chart in Excel, plus amazing other advanced visualization designs to offset the missing ones in the application. Use ChartExpo to produce graphs that are incredibly easy to read and understand.

You can easily access the chart in your ChartExpo. You’ll learn more about this cutting-edge tool in the next section.

You don’t want to miss this.

How to Create a Stacked Area Chart in Excel?

Click here to install ChartExpo into your Excel. Once you’re done, follow the easy steps below.

• Click the Insert menu and then Click the Apps.

• Click the Insert button to get started with ChartExpo.

• A list of charts will appear in the list. You can place your data in the sheet.

• You can find the Stacked Area Chart and click on it to continue drawing.

• Select the cells holding your data and click the Create Chart from the Selection

• Your chart will appear as shown below:

How to Edit the Stacked Area Chart in Excel?

To add additional details, such as the title in your chart, follow the steps below:

• Click the Edit button and then click the pencil-like marker near the title section.
• Once the Chart Header Top Properties window pops up, click the Line 1 button and fill in the title- Sales Orders Analysis.
• Then, click the Show button and toggle the switch to the right-hand side.

• Save your new changes by clicking the Save Changes button and check out the final chart below.

Insights

• The overall sales revenue was on an uptrend pattern between April and September before taking a nosedive in October.
• All the products (mobile, TV, batteries, charger, and cable) experienced a slight growth in March before declining in April.

FAQs:

What is the difference between an Area Chart and a Stacked Area Chart?

Both visualization designs use color to show the magnitude of the change in key data points.

The key difference lies in stacks. One of the charts stacked rows to display trends and patterns of key variables in your data.

What is the disadvantage of Stacked Area Charts?

The Stacked Area Chart in Excel is prone to clutter. This means the chart has a limit on the number of variables it can visualize with clarity and coherence.

Secondly, there are other charts best suited to displaying part-to-whole relationships, such as a Stacked Bar Chart.

Wrap Up:

A Stacked Area Chart is one of the best-suited visualization designs you can use to display the trend of key variables in your data.

In other words, you can use the chart to track the trend of key metrics over time. The Stacked Area Chart in Excel is amazingly easy to read and interpret.

We recommend installing third-party apps, such as ChartExpo, in Excel to access ready-to-use Stacked Area Charts.

ChartExpo is an add-in for Excel that’s loaded with insightful and easy-to-interpret Stacked Area Graphs, plus plenty of more amazing charts. You don’t need programming or coding skills to visualize your data using the Stacked Area Chart in Excel in ChartExpo.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access Stacked Area Charts that are amazingly easy to interpret and visually appealing to your target audience.