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Create a Thermometer Chart in Excel

    Thermometer charts are useful if you want to display actual values against target values: for example actual sales against sales target.  Follow the tutorial or watch our YouTube tutorial at the bottom of this page.  Please see our Excel Dashboard training course if you would like this training delivered at your place of work.

    Here’s an example thermometer chart.

    Example Thermometer Chart

    To create a thermometer chart, follow these steps.

    1. Select the data you are going to use for your chart. Here’s some example data you might want to use.

    2. Next step is to create a clustered column chart. On the Ribbon’s Insert Tab, click the column chart button and select 2D clustered column.

    Your chart will look something like this.

    Clustered Column Chart

    3. Next step is to put the actual series on a secondary axis. To do this right-click on the chart and click Change Chart Type. Make sure the All Charts tab is selected (top) and then Combo is selected (bottom left). Both your actual and target series need to be displayed as clustered columns and the actual series needs to be on the secondary axis (see checkbox bottom right). Click OK to confirm.

    Combo Chart

    4. Next step is to widen the target columns. To do this right-click a target column and select Format Data Series… On the right of your screen you will see an option to change the Gap Width. You need to decrease the gap width to make the columns wider.

    5. Next step is to make sure that both the primary and secondary axis have the same scale. To do this right-click the secondary axis (the numbers on the right) and click Format Axis. On the right of your screen, set the minimum and maximum values to match those of the primary axis.

    You can, if you want, hide the secondary axis scale by selecting it and pressing delete on your keyboard.

    You are done!

    Watch our YouTube video on how to create a thermometer chart in Excel.