Easy 3D
A very easy way to use an easy 3D effect especially on bar charts is done with adjusting the fill of bars. See the below chart (taken from yesterdays post on dynamic chart titles) which is somehow "flat".
To apply the effect, we now select one bar for each "category" (costs and revenue in this example) so all bars are marked. then I choose Format data series and jump to the Patterns tab. I click on the Fill effects button. First set the radion button for Vertical Shading styles and then select the bottom right preview image, the one with a gradient fill dark - light - dark. Confirm two times with OK (for fill effects and format data series) and you have a "fake 3D" effect on your first set of bars. Repeat that process for the second group of bars in this example.
You can apply this technique to pie charts as well although it will not look as 3D as the bar chart. If you want to apply this for pie charts select your pie and then click into the part you want to change. Again select the fill effects from the format data series menu by right clicking on the single selected part of the pie. But instead of using a vertical gradient this time you will choose diagonal adjustments. Just remember that it looks best, when the lighter part is in the middle, therefore you have to choose the direction, where the light is at the tip of your pie part.
Using images as fill effects
Although this "trick" is often used in Powerpoint, a lot of my colleagues didn't know, it is available in MSXL as well. If you think this is common practice, please skip it 
Assuming, you have a bar chart showing your revenues like the one below.
As we are showing revenues here why not attaching a corresponding image to it? Well, that is quite simple and again works with fill effects. I chose the image below which I downloaded from StockXChange and edited in my favorite image manipulation software (right-click and save it to your computer, if you want to use it):
Back in MSXL I single-clicked one of the bar to select the whole series. Right click on it and choosing Format data series I headed to the Patterns tab and clicked - once again 
- the Fill effects button. In the upcoming dialog box I selected the Picture tab and clicked Select Picture. I went over to my directory where I previously saved the coin image and with a click on Insert "imported" it. Then I checked the Stack and scale radio button and left the Units/Picture settings as it is. Two times clicking OK brought me back to my image, where the bars now are columns of coins.
The only thing you have to take care of is that you have "stackable" images. Simply test what looks good and share your experiences with us in the comments section of this post.
Easy Thermometer for projects
A thermometer is a good picture for project levels and a status that has been achieved. To produce something like this in MSXL is quite simple. Imagine you have a table like this:
Sheet3
| A | B | C | D | |
| 1 | Product Design | Sales Training | Documentation | |
| 2 | Status in % | 85% | 57% | 38% |
| 3 | Remaining | 15% | 43% | 62% |
| Formulas in table | ||||||||
|
Display Excel tables online >> Excel Jeanie HTML 4
Note that we have added a second row called "Remaining" as we need a container our "thermometer fluid" is stored in. This simply subtracts the actual level percentage from 100 (or 1 in this case as the cells are formatted as percentage). As a chart type we select the 100% stacked column variation from the Column chart types. For the top part of the bars we choose a color like white or some very light gray (to adjust MSXL's standard colors to your own ones, see the post on custom colors) and attaching the 3D effect mentioned in tipp 1 above.
Select a different color for the status part of the stacked bar. In my case I chose red, which has a good contrast to the white of the top part. I added the 3D effect here as well and removed the borderlines for both parts by clicking again Format data series for each of them and on the Patterns tab in the Border section I chose None. I also wanted to have the percentage displayed on the bar, so for the status I chose the Data Labels tab and within it I checked Value. Here is my result:
What do you think? Have these tipps been useful to you or is just too easy? Any comment is welcome!
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Comments
1. Remove that ugly dull gray background in favor of white.
2. Remove the gridlines, or color them with the lightest shade you can. My default Excel 2003 color palette has a much lighter gray than the 25% gray which is the lightest in the default palette.
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