Heat Map

[JD McLeod]

I am conducting a risk analysis of a business. I have identified controls
and i have calculated a "control score" for each. The scores range from low
to moderate, high, severe, etc. I currently have a grid in Excel which has
numbers that coincide with colors. For example, the lower scores fall in the
green boxes, the moderate scores fall in the yellow/orange boxes and the
severe scores fall in the red boxes. Because this is a grid, it has the
appearance of squares. I use the drawing tools to manually plot the various
controls on the grid where their score falls. I wanted to know how to get a
gradient fill for the colors in a chart so that i can plot the values on a
"smooth" graph. Of course, the colors would have to line up with my scores,
so that a score of say 90 appeared in the red area, whereas a score of 20
appeared in the green area. Thanks.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

you can create heat maps by using the chart type called Surface Plot, you
would choose the 1st one on the second row.

 

[EricG]

The Sparklines add-in includes a 2-D or 3-D heatmap function. You might want
to give it a try. You won't get a smooth gradient with it, but you can
specify the colors to be used for each range of values in the heat map. It
can be found at:

http://sparklines-excel.blogspot.com/

HTH,

Eric