Similar to a scatter chart, a bubble chart is mainly composed of bubbles and variables to display information.

Unlike scatter charts that can only display variables in the X and Y axis, bubble charts display the skill to the third variable with bubble areas.

Bubble charts can be used widely in making maps- a perfect match for displaying data with regional characteristics.

This is the survey data of mobile phone sales in a certain area. Let's take it as an example to make a simple bubble chart.

· 1. Create a bubble chart

Unlike other charts, when making bubble charts, we only need to select the data area. In this case, select cell area B2: D7.

Click the Insert tab, then click the Bubble drop-down button, and select the Bubble option, which will bring us a simple bubble chart.

X-coordinate represents the popularity of each mobile phone brand while Y-coordinate shows the sales volume of each brand in this region, and the bubble area tells the development potential of this region.

· 2. Change the numerical range of axes.

It is clear that the bubbles are basically gathering on the right side of the chart, requiring us to adjust them manually.

Double-click the X-coordinate, click AXIS in the pop-up window on the right, and enter a value of 0.5 at Minimum.

Then click the Y-coordinate, enter 500 at Minimum

· 3. Adjust the size of bubbles.

After adjusting the numerical range of axes, click the bubble in the chart, click the SERIES option, and enter 200 at Scale bubble size to edit box. By doing so, the bubble in the chart will be more clear.

· 4. Add Data Label

Click the Chart Elements button and check Data Labels. The data label shows Sales volume. But we want the data label to display the mobile phone brand and the development potential. What can we do?

Click the data LABEL with the mouse, click LABEL, uncheck Y value, check Value From Cells instead. Then, select the cell area A2:A7 in the pop-up dialog box, and click OK to add a name to the bubble.

Check the Bubble Size option again to add Development potential value, and select theNew Line option at Separator.

· 5. Beautify the bubble chart

Finally, select the horizontal lines in the grid line, then hold down the Delete key to delete them. Similarly, select the vertical lines, and press the delete key to remove them.

Click the bubbles to change their color. Select the whole table, then pick a suitable color for it. You can also add a proper headline.

Such an intuitive bubble chart is created. It is clear that Xiaomi has great development potential in this area by observing the size of bubbles. At the same time, we can also tell Apple enjoys high popularity yet perform poorly in sales.

Did you get it?

Key words: Excel, WPS table, Spreadsheet, et, chart, bubble, bubble chart, making bubble chart, intuitive