In Excel, you can create a variety of different charts to compare two or more data sets. When comparing two data sets, charts such as butterfly, mirror, tornado, etc., are often used, where the differences in the data sets are not always clearly visible.

Many financial and non-financial companies like Yahoo provide investment portfolio tracking services but do not offer the ability to change the appearance of the charts. Microsoft Excel gives you full flexibility by providing different types of customizable charts. E.g., there are a few variations of the Area chart for tracking the value and costs of your portfolio.

To analyze poll or survey results, it is important to see the actual numbers and the difference between all negative and positive answers. Often such results are presented as a spread of negative and positive Likert values, such as "Strongly disagree" and "Strongly agree".

There are many ways to emphasize differences between data on the chart. You can add a threshold value using horizontal or vertical lines, highlight differences with a waterfall, individual values, and so on. Also, you can create a column chart in which the color of each column depends on the value displayed.

A bidirectional chart, also known as a two-sided bar chart, is used to compare two (rarely more) sets of data side by side along the horizontal axis. Unlike other similar charts, such as the divergent chart (butterfly, mirror, tornado, etc.) and the Likert scale chart, the bidirectional histogram bars start on opposite sides and are directed toward each other.

A pictogram (also known as pictorgamme, pictograph, icon chart, pictorial unit chart, or picto) is a chart or graph which uses icons, symbols, illustrations, or pictures to represent data. Pictograms have become quite popular in modern infographics to present simple facts, but it is not obvious how to create this chart in Excel.

When you insert pictures to your org chart (see how to create organization chart with picture) or other SmartArt chart with pictures, you don't need another program to prepare pictures. PowerPoint provides you a feature rich functionality for cropping, rotating, painting, and other formatting needs.

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a handy WordArt utility that includes 20 artistic text effects to create spectacular and engaging presentations. WordArt consists of predefined artistic text effects that can be applied to any text (or can be inserted independently). Applying a WordArt text effect retains the original font and font size but adds various font colors, gradients, outline, dimensional, and reflective elements.

The tornado chart is a modified version of bar charts with two columns of data series whose bars are horizontal and pointing in opposite directions, with the base in the middle of the chart. In fact, the only difference between the tornado chart and the very similar charts - the butterfly chart and the mirror chart - is that the data series used to create the tornado chart must be sorted from the largest to the smallest.

The thermometer chart (also known as a thermometer goal chart or progress chart) is an excellent indicator of the process with well-defined measures, e.g., task status. See also how to create a simple thermometer chart and twin or double thermometer chart. This tip will teach you how to make it more appealing to your audience.