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As we’ve already noted, the Excel 2010 feature Sparklines isn’t a new idea. The idea of small graphs next to the numbers it was originally named by Edward Tufte.
If you like the idea of Sparklines you don’t necessarily need to buy Excel 2010.
Bissantz already has Sparkmaker, an add-on for Excel 2007, Excel 2003 and Excel 2002 (XP).
It has many of the same features as the Excel 2010 feature plus some more.
Sparkmaker has pie charts as well as bar, line and win/loss. The sparklines can be made as images or from a custom SparkFonts, true type font. Trend lines are also available as well as ‘multi-color’ sparklines which let you highlight data subsets.
Static sparklines can be added to Word and Powerpoint documents as well as Excel.
For web designers there’s the option to make ‘Sparkline tickers’- SparkTicker with sparkline images moving across the screen, for example an enhanced stock ticker.
Sparkmaker has a 30 day trial edition after which there are limited features available as a free edition.
The Basic Edition sells for US$59.95 while the Professional edition is $199.95. Version summary
Article posted: Friday, 29 January 2010
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