How to Add a Vertical Line to a Horizontal Bar Chart

Adding a Data Series

Now we need to add the average value to the chart as a new series. Select the chart. Under the Design menu tab of the Chart Tools section, click on Select Data.

Select Data

In the dialog that appears, click the Add button under Legend Entries to add the Average Value series.

Add Series

Excel will provide an Edit Series dialog to specify the name of the series and the location of the values. For  Series Name, we can type in the title directly:

="Average"

For Series Values, you can specify the two cells that contain the average values calculation. In the example, this will be:

=Sales!$C$18:$C$19

We’ll be back here later once we change these values to a line…

Edit Series

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Andrew Roberts ThumbnailAndrew Roberts has been solving business problems with Microsoft Excel for over a decade. Excel Tactics is dedicated to helping you master it.

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24 thoughts on “How to Add a Vertical Line to a Horizontal Bar Chart

  1. Great guide, thanks so much. I had almost given up on being able to make the report in Excel the way I’d been asked to!

    1. Hi Bilo!

      The article is broken up into steps to make it easier to follow (it’s very long otherwise!). Please click on the link to page 2 at the bottom or go to step 2 in the Quick Navigation box at the top to get to the next step in the process!

  2. Bilo:

    No, it’s not just you. At the top of the page in the “Quick Navigation Box” there are links to several pages. The first, “1. Building a Basic Horizontal Bar Chart” shows how to create a chart. In order to add a horizontal line, you need to go through all of the links, from 1 to 5.

  3. This is really.. Been pulling my hairs to combine a horizontal bar and line chart for a long long time.. Thanks for sharing

  4. hi, currently, i’m using your method to have 2 lines to have a “selected area”. do you know if its possible to do a box instead of 2 lines? thank you

  5. Great post. Not at all obvious or easy, but however you worked it out, well done, and thank you for sharing.

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