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September 2003 Tip of the Month

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Creating Custom Charts in Excel

Sometimes you need to create a chart in Excel that is not available as the either a standard type or a custom type, and you need to create your own custom chart. For example, perhaps you have 5 series you wish to plot. Four of the series you want to be line graphs, all on one axis, and the other series you want to be bar a graph, on a second axis.

1. To accomplish this, you would begin by making a standard graph in excel, initially making all the series lines.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the series you want to change to a bar graph. Then right click on the series, and select "Chart Type." Then select the type of series you want, in this instance "Column," and click OK.
   
   
   
   
3. At this point, you want the series in columns to be on a secondary axis. To do this, right click on a data point, select "Format Data Series," click on the "Axis" tab, and click "Secondary Axis."
   
   
   
   
4. To save this type of chart to use again, select the plot area of your chart. Right click and select "Chart Type." Select the "Custom Types" tab; within this tab click on "User Defined." Click the "Add" button. Give the chart type a name, and a description if you wish. Click OK. This will create your custom chart.