Highlighting in Excel Chart

**rajivvyas** · 09-03-2010, 11:28 AM

I have a chart with S&P 500 plotted on one axis and P/E ratio on another going back 20 years. I wanted to highlight three periods during which the U.S. was in a recession. How do I do this?

Thanks,

**Andy Pope** · 09-03-2010, 11:54 AM

Depending on your chart you could add another series and plot as column.
The recession points would have a value.
Set the column Gap width to zero.

If you need more help post example workbook

**rajivvyas** · 09-03-2010, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by Andy Pope

Depending on your chart you could add another series and plot as column.
The recession points would have a value.
Set the column Gap width to zero.

If you need more help post example workbook

Thanks. Please see the attached file.

**teylyn** · 09-03-2010, 10:27 PM

Hello,

there was no chart in your file, so I created one. A line chart with a time axis. I added the Recession data series, moved it to the secondary axis, then changed it to an area chart. In this case an area chart may be better. On a time axis, the column gaps don't go away when there are gaps between the data points.

cheers

**Andy Pope** · 09-04-2010, 06:59 AM

Good point teylyn about the gaps between columns. This is certainly an issue if your date values are sparse.

xl2007 and younger is better at handling gaps in an area chart in terms of the drop to the zero as the drop is vertical.
In xl2003 you will get a sloped line between data points. Depending on the amount of data this may or may not be noticable. If it is just set the secondary Y axis to a smaller value than that of the data values used.

**teylyn** · 09-04-2010, 07:07 AM

Ah, Andy. I did not test across versions. I just noticed that the column chart did not respond to the zero gap width and the area chart worked fine. I did my trials in XL 2010 and it never occurred to me that previous versions may handle things differently.

Another big pro to encourage members to display the Excel version they are using. These days, it seems there are often three variations of answers: one for 2003 and younger, one for 2007 and one for 2010.

Along those lines:

rajivvyas: could you please update your profile and indicate the Excel version you are currently using? This will make it easier for members to point you to the exact steps to take in your specific Excel version. The differences are significant, and we don' want to waste your or our time.

Thanks.

**ervis** · 09-27-2010, 12:19 PM

Hello, Please help me put in this vertical line at age 85 I want to highlihgt life expectancy at age 85 and highlight this as a vertical line at thia point i have inserted a line drawing to show you but when i print the graph this line does not show up so how do input this as pat of the graph?