Sometimes a full chart is too much: you want the trend next to each row of a table. Sparklines are tiny charts inside a cell.
Add sparklines
Transpose the regions so each region is a row with 12 months (or select columns B:E per region).
Select the empty cells next to the rows › Insert › Sparklines › Line › Data range: the monthly values.
Sparkline tab: tick High Point and Low Point, choose a colour.
Types: Line (trend), Column (size per period), Win/Loss (positive vs negative, e.g. variance to target).
💡 Set Axis > Same for All Sparklines (vertical minimum and maximum) when rows should be comparable; otherwise each sparkline scales to itself and small regions look as volatile as big ones.
Data bars and REPT
Conditional Formatting › Data Bars adds a bar behind each number. Or a text bar with a formula: =REPT("█", B2/MAX($B$2:$B$7)*20). More in in-cell bar charts with REPT.
Where people go wrong
Problem
Fix
Sparklines not comparable
Same axis for all
Too small to see
Widen the column, increase row height
Deleted with Delete key
Use Sparkline › Clear
Practice
Add line sparklines with high/low points for each region, and data bars on the Products sales column.
📎 Practice files for this article
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Charts practice dataMonthly regional sales, target, online share and product data.
