Not sure if you've checked out OfficeLabs, a site dedicated to promoting ideas within Microsoft and allowing you to determine whether it is useful or not (they collect usage data on the prototypes).  This week a new prototype went up called ChartAdvisor, which I think you will find very useful. Ever wondered which chart would display your data the best?  ChartAdvisor can help.  Want to see the probabilty of your data being understood as a Radar or Bubble chart? ChatAdvisor can help. 

I've seen some bad charts in my day.  I bet you have too.  My favorites are when people cram 30 items into a pie chart when data is pretty average which gives you 30 equal pie slices. Can you tell the difference or know what you should be looking at?  How about when someone uses a stock or radar chart when a simple bar chart would have worked (you know the reasons why they do it "because it looks cool") and conveyed the message much easier.  Stephen Few has some great examples on his site that identify the many ways you can convey data poorly.

So I invite you to check out ChartAdvisor.  It does have its limitations and prerequisites, (still a prototype) so check to make sure it will work with your scenario in mind.  Try it out and let me know what you think… better yet, let the OfficeLabs’ team know.  More great ideas to come, I am sure.