Handling Small Data Percentages in a Microsoft Excel Pie Chart

It’s not unusual for a pie chart to be dominated by several large categories within a data set and have a few smaller ones clumped together in a manner that makes them hard to recognize. Not only are these cluttered parts on a pie chart hard for the viewer to see, but they can also make the entire graphic look sloppy and unprofessional.

In order to accommodate data of this sort, Microsoft Excel 2007 offers a “pie of pie” option when creating a pie chart. This feature lets you break out these small groups of data into a separate smaller pie chart that is represented as a sub-part of the original whole object. The instructions in the next section will show how to create this type of pie chart.

The example used in this guide is based on data from a monthly budget report that was described in Part 1 of this series. All data and charts created in this series can be found in the file Microsoft Excel 2007 Pie Charts which has been uploaded to the Windows Platform Media Gallery. Feel free to download this workbook and modify it to use for your own projects.

Method 1 – Creating Directly From Data

This first method describes how to create a “pie of pie” chart directly from data entered into a spreadsheet.

Highlight the data that you want to use to create your chart. Open the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon, and expand the Pie menu in the Charts section. Select the Pie of Pie chart in the 2-D Pie portion of the menu. (Click image below for a larger view.)

This action will create a basic “pie of pie” chart like the one shown in the following screenshot.

If you don’t like this presentation, the layout and design can be modified using the same process as described in Part 2 of this series.

Method 2 – Creating From Another Pie Chart

This second method of creation is more common, because you don’t usually realize you need a “pie of pie” chart until you have tried to create a basic pie chart and found that you don’t like the way it looks.

Assume you already have created another type of pie chart and want to convert it to a “pie of pie” chart. As an example, we’ll use the pie chart constructed in Part 2 of this article.

Right-click anywhere on the pie chart and select Change Chart Type.

In the new window that opens, select the Pie of Pie chart.

The new chart will replace the old one in your Excel spreadsheet.

Again, as above, if you want to make any changes to the layout or design, you can use the same methods described in Part 2 of this series.

If you're interested in learning more about creating other types of charts, be sure to browse through the collection of Excel chart and graph tutorials found here at Bright Hub.

For more details on how to modify what data is shown in the second pie chart, continue on to the next page.