Displaying values on a map chart is more meaningful than handing someone a sheet of data. Thanks to Microsoft Excel's Geography data type, creating a map chart is easier than you might think.

The Gauge chart is known as a dial or speedometer chart. Learn how to create a Gauge Chart in Microsoft Excel by following this tutorial.

Indeed, you can use Excel to create heat maps for pretty much anything, from displaying your sports team's on-field strengths to showing how climate change is impacting temperatures over time.

Not anymore: Excel 2013’s table tools include features that make it easy to link charts and cells, perform searches, and create dynamically updated reports, just like—yes—a relational database.