The correct way to add a secondary axis to an Excel chart

Adding a secondary axis to an Excel chart allows you to accurately characterize the combined information in a bar chart format. You will see this in the steps to add a secondary axis in Excel.

Add a secondary axis to an Excel chart

If you look at the knowledge set as shown below, you will see that monthly gross sales are measured in {dollars}, while earned revenue is measured in proportion (%).

When you use any of these combined skills to create a bar chart in Excel, you end up with a chart that doesn't characterize all of the information.

In the chart above, the blue bars characterize monthly gross sales ($) and the small orange bars characterize profit margins (%).

While this chart accurately illustrates monthly gross sales figures, it does not provide many useful details about the monthly revenue earned.

This flaw in an Excel chart can be corrected by simply including a secondary axis that accurately characterizes the underrepresented knowledge (the revenue margin in this case).

So let's try two completely different strategies for adding a secondary axis to a bar chart.

1. Add a secondary axis using the very useful chart functionality in Excel

The only strategy to add a secondary axis to a chart in Excel is to use the Really Useful Charts feature, available in Excel 2013 and later.

1. Choose Body of knowledge > Press the button Insert tab > Very useful graphics possibility in the “Graphics” section.

2. Within Insert table In the dialog box, send to the Recommended Charts in the left pane and select the Graphic with a secondary axis.

3. Click on OK to close the dialog box and you will have an Excel table with a major axis and a minor axis.

As you can see in the image above, the inclusion of a secondary axis has helped to better illustrate monthly gross sales and revenue margins.

2. Manually add a secondary axis to a chart in Excel

If you do not discover a chart with a secondary axis, you can manually add a secondary axis by following these steps.

1. Choose Body of knowledge > Press the button Insert and select 2-D Clustered column Graphic possibility.

2. In the inserted chart, choose the smallest bars (Performance bars). If the smaller bars are small, choose the larger or larger bars (Gross sales bars) and reaches Tab key.

3. After deciding on the smaller bars, right mouse click on and choose Knowledge Sequence Format possibility.

4. In the right panel that appears, choose the option Secondary axis possibility.

This can add a secondary axis to the current bar chart and you will end up with two overlapping bars.

5. Now right click on the Revenue Margin Bar and selected Change the sort order of the sequence table possibility.

6. In the Modify Map Order dialog box, change the Performance Margin Chart ask for the Line with markers.

7. Click on OK to save many changes.

You now have a bar chart with a primary axis representing gross sales ($) and a secondary axis representing revenue margins (%).

Correct way to remove secondary axis from an Excel chart?

To remove the secondary axis from an Excel bar chart, simply select the secondary axis and press the Delete key.

1. Choose Secondary axis by clicking on it.

2. Push the button Delete key on your PC keyboard

Alternatively, you can also right-click on the minor axis and click the button Delete in the context menu.

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