Change the Axis Range in Excel Charts

Excel Charts are one of the most widely used tools to visually present data. With everything that we do on it, changes can always be made and our charts can be improved.

In the example below, we will show you how can you change the values and range in charts.

Change the Axis Values

We will create two tables: one with the fruits sold from 2018 to 2020, and another one with sales results from three different stores in the same period:

Table

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We will select the first table, and then go to Insert tab >> Charts >> Recommended Charts:

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On the window that appears, we will choose the first option- Clustered Column:

All we need to do is click OK and we will have our chart ready. Now, if we want to change the Axis value, we will click on the chart, then go to Chart Design, and choose Select Data:

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On the window that appears, we will click on Edit in Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels:

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And we will choose range A9:A11 instead of A2:A5:

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Our chart will look like this now:

Chart, bar chart

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We will repeat the same steps for yearly data, and change the Legend Entries (Series) by editing every year, and including the data from our second table (range B9:D11):

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Like this:

We do not have to change series names, as the years are the same in both tables. Our chart will finally make sense after all the changes:

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As seen, due to the changes in the range, our Axis Range that is shown on the left side is also changed, without us choosing to do so.

Change the Axis Range

If we want to change the Axis Range without changing the axis values, we need to click on the Axis (located on the left side of our chart). When we do this, the Format Axis window will appear on the right side of our screen:

We will expand Axis Options (in the screen above), and then choose the minimum and maximum Bounds for our chart:

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This is what the chart looks like after these changes:

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Due to the changes, we lost our Chart name, and some of our bars reach the maximum, and we do not have a real presentation of data. We can easily reset the Bounds by clicking on the Reset button if we do not like what we did.

Tomasz Decker is an Excel specialist, skilled in data analysis and financial modeling.