A quick Google search for technology help reveals that Excel graphics are the bane of every office manager’s existence–and that isn’t surprising, given that Excel literacy is often expected of people who have little to no formal training on the platform. If this at all describes your life, HubSpot has you covered with some excellent pre-made Excel templates.
The free pack from HubSpot includes templates for two-to-five-variable graphs, all of which are professionally created and supported with tips and tutorials to help maximize data visualization.
It’s very much built from the ground up to look as professional as possible while remaining user-friendly for Excel novices; as long as you have a version of Excel to work with, you should be able to navigate the templates.
It is worth noting that you’ll need to enter your name, email address, phone number, and some company information before you can download the templates (but the link to download is on the website itself as opposed to being emailed to you after you fill out the form, so do with that what you will).
Per HubSpot’s instructions, your obligations after installing the templates are fairly hands-off; simply click the tab that corresponds with your needed number of variables–up to five–enter the information you need to be represented in the chart, and select one of the pre-formatted options below the entry field.
Once you’ve selected a graphic, you can change cosmetic attributes such as color and font before tossing it in whichever presentation or email for which it’s destined.
Excel has a nasty way of creeping into people’s lives and taking an hour (or several) out of them when they least expect it. It’s easy to joke about people not knowing how to navigate the program efficiently, but even seasoned spreadsheet veterans stand to lose valuable time cobbling together presentations that, more often than not, appear on a screen for a matter of minutes.
With these templates, it’s easy to see how a wide range of people in a similarly varied list of careers could reclaim a good amount of their time without conceding the quality of their work.
