How-to Make a WSJ Excel Pie Chart with Labels Both Inside and Outside

I thought it was a in last week’s USA Today, but looking at the picture I took more closely, it may have been produced by the Wall Street Journal.  Either way, when I saw this chart, I wondered how to do this same chart with standard Excel pie charts.20130604_072911

There are a few things that make this chart unique.

1) Labels on the inside of the slice and on the outside of the slices.

2) Leader lines to the labels outside of the slices.

3) One slice color with white borders.

This type of chart poses a problem in Excel because of the 2 different labels.  So lets take a look at the standard label options.SNAGHTMLc070da5

Notice that there is not a pie chart option for label position to be both on the inside and the outside.

But don’t worry, you can add labels on the inside of a pie chart and on the outside of a pie chart at the same time.  Check out this sample chart:imageIf you learn this technique in Excel, it will make your Dashboard shine!  Here is a sample:

So if you want to learn how to do this trick, please make sure and read the rest of the post and watch the video that you can find at the bottom of this article.  After you follow all the steps, you final chart will look like this:image

The Breakdown

1) Create Pie Chart Data and Pie Chart

2) Create Labels – Outside End

3) Delete Pie Chart Legend

4) Move Labels to Show Leader Lines

5) Rotate Pie Chart to 350 Degrees

6) Copy and Paste Series 27) Move Series Up8) Add Center Labels and Delete “Other” Percentage Label

9) Move Second Series to the Secondary Axis

10) Rotate Pie Chart to 350 Degrees

11) Change the Chart Fill and Border Color

12) Change Label Font Color, Style and Size

 

The Step-by-Step Tutorial

1) Create Pie Chart Data and Pie Chart

First we need to create our pie chart data.  It is not too complicated, just enter the following into your Excel spreadsheet:image

Once you have created your chart data, select the data range from A2:B6 and then click on the Pie Chart button from the Insert Ribbon:image

Here is what your chart should look like now:image

 

2) Create Labels – Outside End

Now click on any slice of the pie chart and then go to the Layout Ribbon.  From there, click on the Data Labels button and then click on the “Outside End” choice from the drop down menu:image

Then right click on any one of the labels and select “Format Data Labels…”image

Then from the Format Labels dialog box, choose the following options:SNAGHTMLc75d8b3

Your chart should now look like this:image

 

3) Delete Pie Chart Legend

It looks like the chart legend is getting in our way.  And, we don’t need it as we have created labels outside the pie chart that will represent the same information as you currently see in the legend.  So simply select the legend in your chart and press the delete key.  Your chart will now look like this:image

 

4) Rotate Pie Chart to 350 Degrees

Now the sample chart that we have is tilted slightly to the left.  So the Excel pie chart slice of “Interest Rates / Inflation Surge” spans from 11:30 (on the clock dial) to 3:15.  To do this, right click on the chart and then select “Format Data Series” from the pop-up menu:image

Then, from the “Format Data Series” dialog box, change the “Angle of first slice” to 350:SNAGHTMLc8717b6

Your chart will now look like this:image

 

5) Move Labels to Show Leader Lines

In the original USA Today chart, you see “Leader Lines” going to each of the “Outside Labels”.  So to do that in Microsoft Excel, we are close because the labels are already on the outside of the pie chart.  But to create the lines, you need to move the labels slightly.  image

So on each one of the labels, select it once and then move it slightly to the left or right and you will then see the leader lines from the pie slice to the outside label appear.  After doing that on each slice, your chart should now look like this:image

6) Copy and Paste Series 2

Okay, now you have created a nice chart, but it needs to have the percentages also appear in the center of each slice.  To do that , you need to do the following steps.

a) Select and Copy your original chart data series A2:B6  image

b) Then right click on your pie chart and then select Paste:image

You will now have a second series added to the pie chart, but you can’t see it because it looks exactly like the first pie chart your created.  Also, excel will only show one pie chart up front, so you are not sure which one you are seeing.  So since your chart won’t look any different, you can see that your chart has a new series (series 2):image

 

7) Move Series Up

So now to get our desired chart effect, and show two labels (one inside and one outside the pie chart, we need to do the following.

First Right click on the pie chart and select “Select Data…” from the pop-up menu:image

Then you need to select the “Series 2” in the “Legend Entries (series)” area on the left and move it up to the top (the first series).

From this:SNAGHTMLd0e59f6

to this:SNAGHTMLd101b80

When you do this step, your chart will now look like this:image

Notice that your chart now is missing all your edits to the outside labels, but don’t worry, we will get them back in a few steps.

 

8) Add Center Labels and Delete “Other” Percentage Label

Now click on the visible pie chart.  Then go to the Layout Ribbon and choose the Data Labels button and then choose center:image

Your chart will now look like this:image

Now to replicate the chart, we need to delete the 6% label from the pie chart as we already put it in the outside labels.  Simply click on the 6% label TWO times and then press the delete key.  Then your chart will look like this:image

9) Move Second Series to the Secondary Axis

Now to get the outside labels with leader lines, we need to move this new series to the secondary axis.  So right click on any pie chart slice and then press CTRL+1 to bring up the Format Series Dialog box.  Then move the series to the Secondary Axis:SNAGHTMLd1d7f13

Now you have created you’re a pie chart with both Outside and Center labels.  Here is what it looks like:image

 

10) Rotate Pie Chart to 350 Degrees

Now you may have noticed that the pie chart and the leader lines don’t match up.  So we need to get the 2nd pie chart series rotated like we already did with the previous pie chart.  To do this, click on any pie chart slice and then press CTRL+1 to bring up the “Format Data Series” dialog box.  Then change the “Angle of the first slice to “350”SNAGHTMLd263660

Your leader lines and your chart should now be aligned and it will look like this:image

 

11) Change the Chart Fill and Border Color

So to complete the chart and make it look like the USA Today chart that we were recreating, we need to do a few last steps.  One of those is to make all the chart slices the same color of a light red.  To do this, click on any pie chart slice and then press CTRL+1 to bring up the Format Data Series dialog box.  Then Click on the Fill menu on the left and choose a “Solid Fill” with a color of Red:SNAGHTMLd2a8fc5

Then choose the Border Color menu on the left and then choose a Solid Line and a Color of White:SNAGHTMLd2c0449

Your chart will now look like this:image

 

12) Change Label Font Color, Style and Size

Now the last thing we need to do is to make the percentage labels white, bold and a larger font.  Click on any percentage label and then do the following from the Home Ribbon:

a) Click on a Style of Bold

b) Increase the font size

c) Change the Font Color to White image

Your final chart should now look like this:image

 

 

The Video

Check out a video tutorial where you can see step-by-step how to make this chart in Excel:

 

Thanks for checking out my blog.  If you liked this post, make sure and leave a comment or give me a like on the YouTube video.  Also, let me know if you have a chart that you want to know how to recreate in Excel.

Steve=True