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8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel has a number of useful features for creating powerful spreadsheets with charts and tables. But when you want to take your spreadsheet to the next level, beyond fancy text or themes, you may need the help of a plugin.

With these handy tools, you can create more visually stimulating representations of your data. To Print How to Print an Excel Spreadsheet on a Single Page How to Print an Excel Spreadsheet on a Single Page A beautifully designed spreadsheet loses all its appeal when printed on nine sheets of paper, with half of them empty. We show you how to get everything nicely on one page. Read More

1. Excel Colorizer

For an easy way to add color to spreadsheet data, the Excel Colorizer add-in works great. To make it easy to read your data, just choose your colors and layout and let the plugin do the rest of the work.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

You can choose a type of uniform, horizontal, vertical or matrix and choose your four colors. Then set the interpolation to smooth or linear and the color space to RGB or HSV. You can also choose the pattern between interlacing or waves. So, select your data, make it look awesome, and hit Color! to finish.

2. Radial Bar Chart

While Microsoft Excel offers many charting options How to Create a Pie Chart in Microsoft Excel How to Create a Pie Chart in Microsoft Excel Anyone can create a simple pie chart. But can you format it perfectly? We will take you through the process, step by step. Read More This plugin lives up to its name by providing exactly what it says:a radial bar chart. Access the plugin, select the cells that contain your data, and then adjust the chart to your liking.

You can choose the labels, the numbers and set a title. Hit Save and your letter will be created automatically. Move or resize your chart and hover over the bars to display the data for each. The plugin is fast, simple, and gives you another chart style option for your data.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

3. HierView

To display an organization chart, HierView is the plugin for you. Your data must include a row identifier with the information contained in the columns. Then set up your data with filtering, auto refresh, column names, and data per node.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

Once you have completed your frame, you can zoom in or out, move in all four directions, or fit the frame to the plotted area. You can also move the entire chart or resize it if needed. Adjust settings or get help at any time with the convenient buttons at the top of the table.

4. Bubbles

Would the data look better in a bubble? 8 Types of Excel Charts and Graphs and When to Use Them 8 Types of Excel Charts and Graphs and When to Use Them Charts are easier to understand than text and numbers. Charts are a great way to visualize numbers. We show you how to create charts in Microsoft Excel and when to best use which type. Read more ? If yes, then Bubbles is the plugin to try. This interactive bubble chart tool allows you to display information in a unique way. Just open the plugin and select your data table. When the chart is created, you can move the bubbles while displaying them or leave them as they are.

Bubbles has a few settings you can adjust for basic or detailed mode, color range, and title and column displays. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts displayed at the bottom of the table for things like hiding or showing more information or bouncing bubbles.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

5. Bing Maps

If adding a map to your spreadsheet is helpful, the Bing Maps plugin makes it simple. Your data may include addresses, cities, states, zip codes or countries, as well as longitude and latitude. Just open the plugin, select your data cells and click Location button on the map.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

The Bing Maps tool is ideal for displaying numerical data related to locations. So if you work in sales, you can showcase new markets to cover or if you work for a company with multiple locations, you can clearly present those facilities to clients.

6. Geographic heat map

When what you really need is a heatmap, the Geo Heatmap plugin is fantastic. From the same developer as the radial bar chart plugin, it has similar settings. Select your data, choose a map of the United States or the world, choose your column headers, and add a title.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

You can reselect the dataset if you add more columns or rows, and if you change a value that's already in the dataset, you'll see the heatmap update automatically. To get a quick look at data related to countries, states, or regions, you can easily insert this heatmap into your spreadsheet.

7. Free Pickit Images

To add photos and other images to your spreadsheets, Pickit Free Images is the perfect tool. Once you access the plugin, you have a few options to find the image you need. You can perform a keyword search, browse collections, or choose a category from a large selection.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

Click on a point to put it on your spreadsheet, select the image you want and press the Insert key button. You can move, resize or crop images as needed. And, if you create a free Pickit account, you can bookmark for reuse and follow other users or categories to keep up with new uploads.

8. Web Video Player

Perhaps your company has videos on YouTube or tutorials on Vimeo that are beneficial to your workbook. With the Web Video Player plugin, you can display a video from any of these sources right in your spreadsheet.

Open the plugin and then enter the video URL or click to visit YouTube or Vimeo to get the link. Hit the Set Video button and you're done. Then, when you open the spreadsheet, the video is there and ready for you to click the Play button.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

For a one-time fee of $5, you can set your videos to autoplay or start and end at specific places in the clip. This option is included within the plugin.

Find, install and use plugins

You can access the add-in store 15 Excel Add-ins to Save Time on Your Business Tasks 15 Excel Add-ins to Save Time on your Business Tasks Did you know that Microsoft Office, including Excel and Word, supports add-ins? Excel add-ins can help you get things done faster because you never have to leave your Excel workbook. Read more easily from within Excel. Open a workbook, select the Insert and click Store . When the Office Add-in Store opens, browse by category or search for a specific add-in. You can also visit the Microsoft AppsSource site on the web and browse or search there.

When you find the plugin you want, you can select it for more details or just install it. However, it is advisable to view the description first to verify the terms and conditions, privacy statements, and system requirements.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

After installing a plugin, open the Insert tab and select the My plugins button. When the popup opens, you can see your installed plugins and double-click one to open it. You can also click the arrow in the My Plugins Button to quickly select a recently used one.

8 Free Excel Add-ins to Make Visually-Pleasing Spreadsheets

How to make your data stand out?

Maybe you format your spreadsheets manually How to Visualize Your Data Analysis with Excel Power Tools How to Visualize Your Data Analysis with Excel Power Tools Excel is killing you with its advanced data management features. Once you've used one of the new tools, you'll want them all. Become a master of your data analysis with power tools! Read More

Let us know your preferred method of making your data visually appealing in Excel by sharing it in the comments below.