Note that the self-installer version also installs an uninstall capability. To uninstall select scroll down to the entry.
If you chose to download the zip version, unzip the add-in file to a directory of your choice.
For installation instructions see common installation instructions. In Excel 2003 load the add-in. In Excel 2007, load the add-in.
In Excel 2007 or later, the TM Chart Utilities functions are in the of the ribbon...
and in the
This feature converts a regular chart into a dynamic chart, i.e., one that automatically plots new data added to the plotted range. The code adjusts to data in columns or in rows and it also factors in any header cells in the data column (or row). It also works when the X values include multiple columns.
Click the Make Dynamic Chart button to bring up the corresponding dialog box. If a chart is already selected, it will show up in the chart selection drop down. Use the drop down to select the chart to be made dynamic.
Since the software must change the formulas used in the chart, there is a checkbox to approve the change.
Below are a few examples of the software in action.
1) Consider the data set and the corresponding chart
After conversion to a dynamic chart, the chart series uses software generated named formula.
Now, the chart will automatically adjust to new data, for example in E9:F9:
2) The data can also be in rows. In this example, neither the X nor the Y range has a header.
3) The X values can be in multiple columns and can have more than 1 header row.
After conversion to a dynamic chart, the chart will automatically pick up new data, say in row 16.
The software analyzes the structure of the existing data to decide how many cells in a column (or row) to ignore. However, it cannot anticipate subsequent changes. So, once the chart is converted to a dynamic chart, do not change the headers of any of the charted ranges.
This function of TM Chart Utilities allows one to export a chart as an image file. Select the chart of interest, the image type, and the output file name.
The list of image types is customized to those supported by your version of Excel. On the machine used to create this document, Excel 2007 supported 4 files types for export, as shown above. Excel 2003, on the other hand, supported only 3, as shown below.
This feature lets one swap the X and Y ranges used in the chart. Obviously, it should be used only for those kinds of charts where both the X and Y axes contain numeric values.
Note that the software will not stop one from swapping X and y ranges when the original x values are non-numeric. However, the result may not be meaningful until one enters numeric values in the original X range. For example, consider the following chart.
After swapping the X and Y ranges, the result looks like:
If this was a mistake, reverse the change by using the feature again. Or, replace the text values with numeric values to get a meaningful chart.
By default, a data label can refer to the series name, the x value, and/or the y value. While it is possible to use some other cell in the data label it cannot be done through the Excel user interface (UI). The function of lets one specify a range other than the x or y values as the source for the data labels.
Consider the data set and the associated bar chart shown below.
Using the native Excel UI there is no easy way to use column D as the data label source. The function of the allows one to do that through the below dialog box.
When Excel creates a chart, the physical size of the chart is independent of the values of the data plotted. So, even if one were to plot identical x and y values, as on the left below, the visual effect fails to convey the information that we are plotting a line that should be at 45 degrees to the horizontal. While both the axes show the same range of values, the horizontal dimension is much longer than the vertical one. To get the correct visual effect, as on the right below, the horizontal and vertical sizes should be the same.
Similarly, if we look at the following data set, the Y range is about 2.86 times the X range. Yet, the physical size of the chart shows a larger x range! To start the process of making the physical size match the values shown, start by clicking the Chart Tools contextual ribbon | TM Tab | Chart Utilities group | Adjust Aspect Ratio button. The resulting dialog box, shown on the right in the image below, shows that the ratio of the values is 2.857 (rounded to 3 decimal places) whereas the ratio of the inside plotarea dimensions is 0.568. The difference between the two is a whopping 80%!
Use the arrow buttons to reduce the physical size of the plotarea and consequently the inside plotarea so that the ratio of the physical dimension matches that of the plotted values. By reducing the horizontal size, the best one can accomplish is a difference of 0.02%. That is far better than anything one can perceive visually.
Nonetheless, further tweaking of the height and the width halves the difference to 0.01%.
Finally, click the Fix button to reduce the chart area while keeping the plot area unchanged.
While the dialog box shows a lot of information, the two important items are the ratio of the Y Range to the X Range and the ratio of the Inside Height to the Inside Width. The percentage difference is shown in the box with the black background. Use the left-right and up-down arrows to adjust the plot area to get the desired visual effect. For the physical chart to show the same ratio as the range of values shown, the difference should be zero (or as close to zero as possible).