I’ve posted before on my opinions about Excel 2007′s in-cell bar charts, and mentioned that Excel 2010′s are supposed to be much better. Well, having got my hands on the beta version yesterday, I can say yes, yes, yes, they are much better. The gradient option is still there, but is not a default. Zero, and very low numbers compared to other numbers in the range have no bar height (see examples A and B below), AND there’s no option to turn on the fake bar height.

Negative numbers in a range result in an axis being drawn, and the bar appearing the other side of the axis, in a different color (D). You have full control of colors of the axis and bars. But, wait, there’s more. You can control the max and min of the chart – great if you have multiple in-cell bar chart ranges that you want to be able to compare.

You can’t have the bars offset from the data as they are a conditional format, but you could just slap in a formula where you want the bar: “=cell where the data is”, and then click the option to show just the bar, not the data (E). Even the gradient option is better, as there is a border by default allowing you to see where the end of the bar is (C). Finally, the resolution of the bar (i.e. when a bar height goes to zero), depends on the width of the cell (B). Great job Microsoft.