Charts and maps#
A Reportworq report can carry two kinds of visual, and they are not in competition. Most reports end up using both.
- Native Excel charts. The source workbook is a real Excel file, so any chart you build in Excel is supported as it stands.
- Reportworq charts and maps. The Excel add-in adds its own chart and map builder on top, for the visuals Excel's own charts do not cover and for visuals that have to redraw themselves on every run.
Native Excel charts#
Nothing about a Reportworq report asks you to give up Excel charting. Build the chart in Excel the way you always have, and it goes on working:
- It plots the cells Reportworq populates. A scheduled run recalculates the workbook, so the chart is drawn over that run's numbers.
- It can fill a PowerPoint slide. A slide shape can be linked to a chart in the Excel report by name, and Reportworq renders it into the deck on every run. See PowerPoint reporting.
- It can go into an email body. The Chart variable inserts a chart from the workbook into a message template, and it can take the chart's name from a cell so the run decides which chart to show. See Message templates.
If Excel already draws what you need, use an Excel chart. There is no conversion step and no penalty for it.
What the add-in builder adds#
Reach for the builder when Excel's own charts do not cover what the report needs, or when a visual has to keep itself current through scheduled distribution. It offers the following capabilities.
| Capability | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| 12 chart types, plus maps | Column, bar, line, stacked column and stacked bar, pie with a center-hole slider that makes it a donut, waterfall, combo, range bands drawn as bars or as an area, heatmap, and Sankey. |
| Shapes built for a finance review | A waterfall cumulative bridge for a variance walk, a Sankey flow diagram whose ribbon widths carry the values, a heatmap that colors a matrix around a neutral point you choose, range bands that float from a start value to an end value instead of rising from the axis, and a combo chart that puts a rate on a second axis alongside amounts. |
| Maps over tiles or over your own image | Labeled points and value-sized bubbles drawn over real OpenStreetMap tiles, or over an image you supply. The image does not have to be a map: a store floor plan, a site layout, or a schematic works the same way, with your data plotted onto it. |
| Maps driven by your own data | The place the map centers on, the place name it searches for, and the zoom level can each read a worksheet cell instead of a fixed value. One authored map then serves a whole burst set, framing itself on each recipient's own location. |
| Redraw with nobody opening Excel | Every Reportworq chart and map on the workbook is redrawn from current cell values when the job runs. |
Interactive charts and static visuals#
The one real difference between the two is worth stating plainly, because it is what decides which you reach for.
An Excel chart is interactive and automatic inside Excel. It reacts as you work: change a cell it plots and it redraws immediately, and its data points respond when you point at them.
A Reportworq chart or map is a static picture. It is a visualization, not a live object. It does not respond to pointing or selection, and it does not redraw while you edit the sheet. What it does instead is carry its own definition, so it can be redrawn on demand:
- Refresh in the add-in redraws a chart, or every chart on the workbook, from the current worksheet values.
- A job run redraws all of them automatically, from that run's data, with no one opening Excel.
So the trade is interactivity inside the sheet, in exchange for a visual that maintains itself through scheduled distribution and comes in shapes Excel's own chart types do not cover.
Which one to use#
Use a native Excel chart when Excel already draws the shape you want and you value the live behavior in the sheet.
Use the Reportworq builder when one of these is true:
- You need a map, or a chart shape Excel's own types do not cover.
- The visual belongs to a burst set, and each recipient's copy has to reframe itself on their own region, product, or entity.
- You want the visual defined once and redrawn by every scheduled run, rather than rebuilt by hand.
Going deeper. Every chart type and the data shape it expects, the full mapping capability including cell-driven framing and the zoom lookup technique, and how refresh works, are in Excel: charts and maps.
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