How to create a clean set of bars like this:
Your Metrics Sheet:
For the labels and status counts, you can use quite a few different methods. The trick to this solution are the blank columns.
I use a zero width character that I copied and then pasted. Once in the first blank column, twice in the second, and three times in the third. This gives you three blank column headers in the same sheet that are technically not named the same.
Then I used a column formula in each to provide the spacing.
=MAX([Not Started]:[Not Started]) - [Not Started]@row + 1
The formula above goes into the first blank column. The second and third blank columns have similar formulas. Just reference the column immediately to the left.
Second blank:
=MAX([In Progress]:[In Progress]) - [In Progress]@row + 1
Third blank:
=MAX(Completed:Completed) - Completed@row + 1
If you want wider spacing, that can be adjusted by changing the 1 at the very end. Smaller numbers leave smaller gaps and larger numbers leave larger gaps. I wouldn't suggest going lower than 1 though as you start running the risk of a negative number for the spacing which will throw everything off.
Your Widget Settings:
The key here is bringing in all columns and changing the series for the blank columns to white. This not only hides them in the legend but also provides the spacing between groups.
I also made sure to only show the value labels on the statuses that I want to see. This means going through each series and manually applying both color and value labels, but it helps keep things clean.
The final step is to make the horizontal Axis Labeling Style white to hide that as well.
In my screenshot, I did apply the vertical tick mark lines.
Feel free to share use cases and your own screenshots in the comments!
