How to Turn Any Data Set Into a Heat Map
April 2, 2015 / / Comments Off on How to Turn Any Data Set Into a Heat Map
< 1 minute read

In order to visualize trends within large sets of data, you usually have to create a chart or graph. Google’s recent update to conditional formatting in Google Sheets eliminates that step by allowing you to quickly turn any data set into a colored heat map.
A data heat map highlights each data cell with a different color along a spectrum based on its distance from the statistical mean. As an example, you could use heat maps to quickly identify trends in expense reports, like which days you spend the most money.