how to place two x axis items side by side for one item being described

[Emma Eve]

Hello. I have a question about presenting information in a chart a certain way. The following is an example of the data I am trying to present.
1. Total Retail (item displayed in the chart)
2. Total Office (second item displayed in the chart)
3. Total Comm (third item displayed in the chart)
4. Feb Actual (component of the x axis)
5. Feb Budget (component of the x axis)

I am able to create a chart with the information above. The issue is the chart actually produces two charts - one for Feb Actual and one for Feb Budget. What I am trying to do is place Feb Actual and Budget side by side for each item presented (1-3 above). Is this possible?

Thank you!

[MrShorty]

I am not certain that I understand what you are trying to do. In post #5 of this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/excel-char...-industry.html I give an example of how to make a "multi-level" x axis, that sounds kind of like what you are trying to do. As with a lot of charting questions, the key part of creating a chart like this is getting the data in the spreadsheet arranged correctly, so pay particular attention to how I arranged the data in the spreadsheet. Look at it and see if that helps you accomplish what you want.

[Emma Eve]

I'm sorry. What I am trying to say is that when I try to chart the inputs above the result is two presentation in one chart - there is a bar chart for Feb Actual and another for Feb Budget (side-by-side). I am trying to consolidate the two so that Feb Actual and Feb Budget are side-by-side for each item (1 - 3 above). I tried moving the data around to see if it will plot the information in the order I would like, but I have had no luck. It always creates the two charts.

[MrShorty]

You may need to provide a sample file to illustrate your problem/question. I cannot visualize what you are doing just from your written description.

A couple of thoughts to consider. When a chart is created, Excel does its best to "guess" at what you wanted. I find that it frequently guesses wrong. Sometimes, a simple "switch row/column" command (on the chart design tab) is sufficient to get what I want. Much of the time, I find myself going into the Select Data dialog (also on the design tab) and manually editing/removing/adding the data series to get what I want. If you are not familiar with these two commands, you may look at what they do to see if they are what you need.

[Emma Eve]

Well, my boss decided to take a different approach - of course. So, I do not need to present the information the way I originally intended. However, I am crazy curious as to how this can be done. I attached an example (I think ). Hopefully, I did. Sample Chart.xlsx

[MrShorty]

Select chart -- Design tab -- Switch row/column causes the chart to put each office across the horizontal category x axis, and two columns for each office, budget and actual. Is that what you are trying to do?

[Emma Eve]

Wow - I feel pretty silly. Yes, that is what I am trying to do. Any recommendations on a good excel study book?

[MrShorty]

I don't have any recommendations. Back when I was learning spreadsheets and Excel, most of what I learned I learned from the help files (did they do better at writing help files back then?). You might become more familiar with the help files so that you can find the information you need when you need to figure out how something works in Excel.

[is1]

Do you mean like this? Budget.JPG