Doughnut charts are a good way to give birds-eye view of two or more sets of data.
Unlike a pie chart, a doughnut chart can contain multiple series.
The exercise and result are in the Doughnut Chart file.
Here is some sales data. We can use a doughnut chart to sense the shift between years.
Highlight the data (without the total), click the Chart Wizard and select a doughnut chart. Use the Press button to preview each of the two types (connected or split) if you like. We like the connected type better, especially when you are comparing multiple series.
Then click Next. Adjust the series values as needed.
Continue with the Next buttons and finish the chart. We chose to display the values of the data in the chart, which can work well with a chart like this.
With a chart like this, you can see how which areas are growing or shrinking in relative size by considering what the size would be if the lines extended from the first data series, sales for 2001. We can see that the Midwest picked up share, but all the other regions lost share.
Now let's change the hole size in the chart. Right click on any data series in the chart and then select Format Data Series. Go to the Options tab.
In this section you can make changes and get a mini glimpse of the change. You can change:
The angle of the first slice
The size of the hole.
Make your changes, then click OK.
Doughnut charts can give you a great perspective of the relative changes. Unlike a stacked bar chart, with a doughnut chart, you can get a better sense of the relative change in each item of the series.