Bissantz SparkMaker editions - Pro, Basic, Free edition

This is a very short tutorial which helps you to create your first dynamic sparklines in Excel within five (5) minutes, based on sparkline formulae (functions).

Provide your data for a sparkline in consecutive columns (1) or rows (2)
To create your first dynamic sparkline in Excel it is best to start with a simple single-color sparkline formula. The easiest way to insert such a sparkline formula is by hand. Select the cell where your sparkline is to be created and type e.g. "=sparkline(..)" to create a line graph or "=sparkbars(..)" to create a bar graph. Within the parantheses, you define a data range (e.g. A1:A10) which you can either type in directly or select with the mouse. Sparklines can be created everywhere on a sheet and may reference other sheets, too. In the example they are created below and to the right of the data sets.
Create multi-color sparklines with the SparkMaker dialog. First select the cell into which you want to insert the sparkline and then open the SparkMaker dialog. It opens either via the icon in the SparkMaker toolbar or via the context menu (right mouse-click). In the context menu, select "Insert sparkline".
The next step is to select a sparkline type with the top-left button (in the example bar graphs are selected) and then the option "formula" in the dropdown field on the top-right. Then select the data source cells by selecting the "source" field and then selecting the data cells you want to use as the basis for your sparkline. In a similar fashion select in the "target" field the cell where the sparkline is to be created (this is pre-marked with the cell which was selected while you opened the dialog). Finally, determine a cell where the formula can be stored and enter this information in the "formula" field. Now you may make furhter changes to the format of your sparkline or you generate a first version of your sparkline by clicking the "Apply" or the "OK" button.
As soon as you have created your initial multi-color sparkline, you can always return to the dialog with the current settings of the formula by simply double-clicking on either the sparkline itself or the cell where the formula is stored (in the example {SparkbarsColored}). You can then further edit your sparkline, decide on colors, show landmark values or change the scaling - all within the same dialog. Click "Apply" or "OK" to commit your changes in your formula to Excel.
The example below displays several variants of sparklines and illustrates the interaction with the SparkMaker dialog. It may serve as an additioanl help for you to quickly learn the few basic activities required to generate professional sparklines in your Excel sheets for reports or dashboards. For further information on how to leverage sparklines and other visual information display mechanisms you may also have a look at Bella's blog.