In an age driven by "big data", we need to cut through the noise and present key information in a way that can be quickly consumed and acted upon making data visualization an increasingly important skill.

Visualizations need to not only present data in an easy-to-understand and attractive way, but they must also provide context for the data, tell a story, achieving that fine balance between form and function.

Excel has many rivals in this space, but it is still an excellent choice, particularly if it's where your data resides. It offers a wealth of tools for creating visualizations other than charts and the chart options available are constantly increasing and improving, so the newer versions now include waterfall charts, sunburst diagrams, and even map charts.

But what sets Excel apart is its flexibility, it gives us total creative control over our designs so if needed we could produce our own animated custom chart to tell the right story for our data.

In this course, we will explore Excel's rich selection of visualization tools using practical case studies. The course deals with visualizations that will show trends, forecasts, breakdowns, and comparisons for a large variety of data sets.

The course covers the usual chart types like conditional formats, sparklines, and specialized charts and even creates animated charts and infographics, along with dashboards

In some cases, pivot tables are required to drill down and answer very specific questions. The course includes a bonus section on the pivot table.

You will also be learning to present your finished visualizations in attractive reports and dashboards that use tools like slicers and macros for automation and interactivity.