- #HOW TO CHANGE EXCEL X AXIS DATA PROFESSIONAL#
- #HOW TO CHANGE EXCEL X AXIS DATA SERIES#
In such cases, using light and dark colors to show contrast can help even when the printed charts are seen (which are often printed in black and white). Note: When creating Excel charts, it’s always a good idea to keep in mind that these might be printed.
#HOW TO CHANGE EXCEL X AXIS DATA PROFESSIONAL#
Simple things such as making the line and columns in contrasting colors can make your Excel charts professional and easy to understand.
#HOW TO CHANGE EXCEL X AXIS DATA SERIES#
You can also format the line by right-clicking and selecting the Format Data Series option. This will give you a chart that has the secondary axis and the chart type of data on a secondary axis is a line chart. In the Change Chart Type dialog box, change the Profit Margin chart type to ‘Line with Markers’.Right-click on the Profit margin bar and select ‘Change Series Chart Type’.This will add a secondary axis and give you two bars. In the right-pane that opens, select the Secondary Axis option.With the Profit margin bars selected, right-click and click on ‘Format Data Series’.If these are too small to select, select any of the blue bars and hit the tab key. In the resulting chart, select the profit margin bars.In the Charts group, click on the Insert Columns or Bar chart option.In case the ‘Recommended Charts’ feature does not work for you, there is always the option to do it manually (only takes a few clicks).īelow are the steps to add a secondary axis to the chart manually: Adding the Secondary Axis Manually (2013 and above versions) This sometimes doesn’t happen when creating a chart manually, in which case you have to manually set the axis value. One of the things I like about the ‘Recommended charts’ feature is that it identifies the time data (such as years or months). If you don’t find the chart that you want to use, you can create it manually (covered next). Excel tries to be helpful but may not always be on point.
Note: You also get other chart options that you can use.
Scan the charts in the left pane and select the one that has a secondary axis. This will open the Insert Chart dialog box. In the Charts group, click the Recommended Charts option. If you have a simple dataset (like the one we are using in this example), it’s likely that recommended charts will show you an option that already includes a second axis as a part of the chart.īelow are the steps to add a secondary axis to a chart: This feature quickly analyzes your data and show you a few options. In Excel 2013 and higher versions (Excel 2016, 2019 and Office 365), there is a quick way to create charts using the recommended charts feature. In this section, I will show you the steps to add a secondary axis in different versions. Adding Secondary Axis to Excel ChartsĪdding a secondary axis is very simple in all the versions of Excel (more so in the latest ones). This combination chart now allows you to see the variation in both series of data – Sales and profit margin values. The lowest value is 0% and the highest is 4% (which is determined by the profit margin percentage values in your dataset). So, we add a secondary axis to the mix and make the chart better (as shown below).Ī secondary axis has been added to the right which has different scales. Solution – adding a secondary axis to plot the profit margin numbers. While Sales numbers are likely to be high, profit margins are usually very low values.Īnd these two can’t be plotted on the same axis. When you plot all the data on the same axis, you lose the ability to compare data of different scales. I am sure you can’t tell by looking at the chart.īut if you look at the numbers, the profit soared by 125% in 2019.Īnd that’s the issue with this Excel hart. What if I ask you to tell me how much change happened in profit margin in 2019 (compared with 2018). The blue bars represent the sales value and the red ones (the little bars next to the blue sales bars) represents the profit margin. Suppose you have the following data set of Sales and Profit margin of a company for six years.īelow is the chart that I have created using this data. Let me try and explain this by using an example. 
Why Add a Secondary Axis in Excel Charts? Adding the Secondary Axis Manually (Excel 2010).Adding the Secondary Axis Manually (2013 and above versions).Why Add a Secondary Axis in Excel Charts?.
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