Excel Bar Chart Side by Side with Secondary Axis

If you are searching for a solution or some special tricks to make a bar chart side-by-side secondary axis in Excel. then you have landed in the right place. There is a quick way to make a bar chart side by side secondary axis in Excel. This article will show you each step with proper illustrations so, you can easily apply them for your purpose. Let’s get into the main part of the article.


Excel Bar Chart with Secondary Axis Side by Side: Step-by-Step Procedure

Suppose, you have a dataset containing the sales quantity of two products for 6 months and you want to make a bar chart with this data.

Excel Bar Chart Side by Side with Secondary Axis

But, after making a simple 2D Column Bar chart, you have found that sales of product B are very high and of product, A is very low, so in the bar chart, the heights of product A columns are very small. Here, it is necessary to add a secondary axis for this.

Excel Bar Chart Side by Side with Secondary Axis

In this section, I will show you a quick and easy method to make a bar chart side by side secondary axis in Excel on the Windows operating system. You will find detailed explanations of methods and formulas here. I have used the Microsoft 365 version here. But you can use any other versions as of your availability. If any methods won’t work in your version then leave us a comment.


Step 1: Insert 2 New Columns

You have to play a trick to make a secondary axis in a bar chart showing columns on sides because, in Excel, there isn’t any default option to create this.

  • For this, create two new columns between the product columns. Just rightclick on column D and select the Insert

Insert 2 New Columns

  • You will see a new column will be created. Rename it Column 1. Then similarly add column 2.

Insert 2 New Columns


Step 2: Make Bar Chart

Now, select the full data table and make a Bar chart. Now, you will see a similar chart created.

Make Bar Chart

Read More: How to Sort Bar Chart in Descending Order in Excel


Step 3: Apply Secondary Axis

Now, select any of the bar groups and right-click on it. Here, you will find the Format Data Series option. Press on it.

Apply Secondary Axis

  • Now a new window will appear on the right side of the worksheet.
  • Select the Secondary Axis option here.

Apply Secondary Axis

  • As a result, you will see a new secondary vertical axis on the right side of the chart which is giving the values for product B and the left side axis is giving the values for product A.

Apply Secondary Axis

Read More: How to Change Bar Chart Color Based on Category in Excel


Step 4: Remove Extra Columns

Now, you can remove the columns and add extra to make the bar chart secondary axis side by side.

  • For this, rightclick on the legend on the chart.
  • And, select the Delete

Remove Extra Columns

  • Now, you have got finally the bar chart with the secondary axis side by side.

Excel Bar Chart Side by Side with Secondary Axis

Read More: How to Color Bar Chart by Category in Excel


Download Practice Workbook

You can download the practice workbook from here:


Conclusion

In this article, you have found a special trick to making Excel bar charts secondary axes side by side. I hope you found this article helpful. Please, drop comments, suggestions, or queries if you have any in the comment section below.


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Osman Goni Ridwan
Osman Goni Ridwan

OSMAN GONI RIDWAN is a marine engineer who loves exploring Excel and VBA programming. Programming, to him, is a time-saving tool for efficiently managing data, files, and internet tasks. He is proficient in Rhino3D, Maxsurf, C++, MS Office, AutoCAD, Excel, and VBA and goes beyond the basics. Armed with a B.Sc in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering from BUET, OSMAN has transitioned into the role of a content developer. Specializing in creating technical content exclusively centered around Excel... Read Full Bio

2 Comments
  1. Many thanks for this – brilliant way to leverage Excel graphing – appreciated!

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