CSV de ejemplo
| Region | Hardware | Software | Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 420 | 610 | 190 |
| Europe | 310 | 480 | 150 |
| Asia Pacific | 260 | 390 | 110 |
| Latin America | 90 | 140 | 50 |
How to Create a Stacked Bar Chart
A step by step walkthrough for turning a spreadsheet into a published stacked bar chart in PlotSet, from shaping the sheet in wide format to ordering the stack and exporting the result.
Unos 8 minutosThis guide covers how to create a stacked bar chart from your own spreadsheet, end to end: a published, interactive chart with the segments ordered on purpose and the totals reading correctly, not a copy of the sample data the template ships with. You will shape a sheet into wide format, upload it, map the columns, and decide the one thing that actually changes how the chart reads: which segment sits on the baseline.
Eight minutes is the going rate once your spreadsheet is already one row per category with a column for each segment. Starting from a long format export, one row per category-segment pair, tacks on another five for the pivot PlotSet needs before it reads as a stack. Either way, the click path below is the one a real chart goes through, upload to publish.
Los datos que necesitas
Wide format, one row per category: the category name in the first column, then one numeric column for each segment. One header row, headers become the legend labels.
This has to be wide, not long. If your source data has one row per region per product line with a separate "value" column, pivot it in your spreadsheet first so each product line gets its own column.
Column order sets the default stack order, left to right becomes bottom to top (or reverse it in the chart, depending on your layout). Put the segment you want on the shared baseline in the leftmost data column.
Header names become the legend text exactly as typed. Rename "Q1_Rev_Actual" to something a reader recognizes before you upload, since renaming later just means redoing the column mapping.
A blank cell is read as zero, not skipped. If a region genuinely sold no services that quarter, a zero is correct; if the number is just missing, fill it in before the bar's total quietly comes out short.
Los pasos
El camino exacto en PlotSet, desde una plantilla en blanco hasta el gráfico terminado.
- 01
Open the Stacked Bar Chart template
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose the Stacked Bar Chart template. It loads with sample data already in place, in the wide format PlotSet expects, so you can see the column layout before you touch your own file.
Todas las guías empiezan aquí. Elige la categoría y luego la plantilla. Es la misma cuadrícula sea cual sea el tipo de gráfico que busques. - 02
Pivot your sheet into wide format if it isn't already
One row per category, one column per segment: category in the first column, a number for each segment after it. If your export is long format, one row per category-segment pair, pivot it in your spreadsheet tool first. Uploading long format straight into a stacked chart usually produces one segment per bar instead of a real stack.
- 03
Get your data into PlotSet
Use the data panel to import a CSV or .xlsx file, paste rows directly from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet if you want the chart to refresh when the source changes. PlotSet reads the first row as headers and each of those becomes a segment name.
La vista de datos, aquí en un proyecto de gráfico de barras. Sube un CSV, saca los números de una imagen con Magic Import o sincroniza una Google Sheet. El panel es el mismo en todos los tipos de gráfico. - 04
Map the category column and the segment columns
Confirm which column feeds the category axis and which numeric columns feed the stack. This is usually automatic when your headers are clean, but check it if your sheet carries an extra column, such as a total, that shouldn't be treated as its own segment.
Las asignaciones deciden qué columna se convierte en la etiqueta, cuál aporta los valores y cuál define el color. Auto Binding las deduce de tus encabezados, así que revísalas en lugar de darlas por buenas. - 05
Order the stack
Drag the segment you want on the shared baseline to the bottom of the stack order and keep that order identical across every bar. This is the one decision in a stacked chart that actually changes what a reader can compare, so make it deliberately rather than leaving the upload order in place.
- 06
Turn on total labels if the total matters
If the story is partly about the overall size of each bar, switch on a total label at the end of it. Reading a stacked total off the axis by eye is imprecise once you have more than two segments, so a printed number saves the guesswork.
- 07
Label segments directly and pick a colour per series
With four segments or fewer, labelling each band directly usually reads faster than a separate legend, since there's no lookup between colour and name. Give each segment its own consistent colour and keep that colour tied to the same segment across every bar, not reassigned per chart.
La pestaña Preview de un gráfico de tipo Stacked Bar Chart. Todos los controles de estilo están en el panel enmarcado: apariencia, encabezado, pie de página y las opciones propias de este tipo de gráfico, cada grupo en su propia pestaña. - 08
Ship it: publish, embed or export
Publish for a live, interactive chart with hover tooltips that break out each segment's value, grab the embed code for a page, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF for a deck or report.
Empieza con la plantilla de Stacked Bar Chart, que ya trae datos de ejemplo cargados, y sustitúyelos por los tuyos.
Abrir la plantillaPublícalo, incrústalo o expórtalo
El último tramo es igual en todos los tipos de gráfico: Share convierte el gráfico en un enlace público en vivo y un código de incrustación, y Export lo guarda como un archivo estático.
Share: enlace público y código de incrustación
Al activar el código de incrustación y el enlace público, el gráfico queda publicado. El enlace se lo puedes enviar a cualquiera sin problema, y el código de incrustación se coloca en cualquier página como un iframe que conserva los tooltips al pasar el cursor y toda la interactividad. Si editas el gráfico más adelante, haz clic en Recreate para llevar esos cambios a ambos.
Export: SVG, PNG o JPG
Export guarda una copia estática en el tamaño que necesites. El SVG se mantiene nítido a cualquier escala y se puede seguir editando en una herramienta de diseño; PNG y JPG son la opción segura para diapositivas y documentos. El multiplicador de escala es lo que te da una imagen nítida en una pantalla retina.
Consejos de estilo para un Stacked Bar Chart
Bottom-align the segment your reader compares most
Only the bottom band sits on a shared baseline across bars, so it's the only one that can be compared accurately at a glance. If one series is the point of the chart, for example this year's revenue against a backdrop of prior years, put it at the bottom, not buried in the middle of the stack.
Switch to 100% stacked when totals aren't the point
If your bars have wildly different totals and the story is really about the mix, not the size, turn on the 100% stacked option. Every bar normalizes to the same length, which makes the proportions easy to compare and removes the size differences that were distracting from them.
Keep segment colours consistent, not sequential
A sequential colour scale (light to dark) implies an order that a stack of unrelated categories, like product lines or departments, doesn't have. Use distinct, consistent colours per segment instead, and save a sequential scale for when the segments are genuinely ordered, like age brackets.
Roll small segments into an explicit "Other" column
Past five or six segments the thinner bands become hard to read and harder to tell apart by colour. Sum the smallest categories into one "Other" column in your source sheet before uploading, rather than letting PlotSet render eight thin slivers per bar.
Errores comunes al hacer un Stacked Bar Chart
Every bar shows only one segment instead of a stack
This is almost always a long format upload: one row per category-segment pair rather than one row per category with a column per segment. Pivot the sheet so each segment gets its own column, then re-upload or reconnect the source.
The legend shows raw column headers instead of readable names
PlotSet uses your header row as the segment labels exactly as written, so a header like "seg_2_val" ends up on the chart verbatim. Rename the columns in your source spreadsheet and re-upload, since editing the legend text alone won't survive the next refresh.
A bar's total looks lower than the real number
Check for a blank cell in one of the segment columns for that category. PlotSet reads a blank as zero rather than skipping it, so a missing value quietly shrinks the bar instead of raising an error. Fill in the actual number or confirm zero is correct.
Aprende más sobre el Stacked Bar Chart
¿No estás seguro de que el Stacked Bar Chart sea la opción correcta? Descubre qué es, cuándo usarlo y cuándo no.
Stacked Bar Chart: preguntas frecuentes
Wide format: one row per category, and one numeric column per segment, with a single header row. That's different from a long format export with one row per category-segment pair, which needs to be pivoted into wide format before PlotSet reads it correctly as a stack.
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