Combining a Line Chart and a Column Chart

[Mini724]

Hi,

I’m new to the forum so just a quick introduction first. I am self taught on Excel so there’s quite a lot that I don’t really know, I just play around with things until I can get them to work. I use Excel a lot in my job and am keen to impress the bosses a bit further by wowing them with informative charts, etc, however I’m having a little trouble with something I want to do.

I’m trying to show a trend in a column chart and I’m not sure whether this can even be done. I want to insert a chart which looks like the one attached which was created by making a separate column chart and line graph and putting them together using Paint as I couldn’t work out how to do a combined graph like this in Excel.

Basically, I want the line part of the chart to show the percentage difference between the blue bar and the red bar if that makes sense.

I did try to use trendlines but this didn’t seem to work and only allowed me to show a trend on one of the bars, not the trend between both.

Is there a way I can do this without having to use Paint to draw together two separate charts?

Thanks

[rpp]

Good day,

Excel provides an option to assign chart data to a primary and secondary axis. To do this, set up the secondary data (formulas) into your data table and initially build your chart as a bar chart. Once built, use the 'Chart Tools' menu(s) to select series 3 (your calculated %) and assign it to the secondary axis. Lastly, select just this data within the chart and 'Change Series Chart Type...' to a Line Chart. I've attached a file with more detailed notes to assist.

Ciao!

[Mini724]

Thanks very much rpp, that's really helpful. I knew there must be some way of doing it!

Thanks again!