Secondary Axis on Charts in Microsoft Office

Secondary Axis on Charts in Microsoft Office

If you are preparing a chart using two data fields that are so different in terms of data (i.e one data in numbers and the other in percentages ) they cannot be displayed on a single scale. For example:

Year        Population           Growth
2005     150,000,000             2.4%
2006     153,900,000             2.6%
2007     158,363,100             2.9%
2008     163,272,356             3.1%
2009     168,170,527             3.0%
2010     172,374,790             2.5%
2011     176,339,410             2.3%

without secondary axis

with secondary axis

To make a chart with secondary axis, first insert a chart using the chart wizard in the "Insert" menu (select a 2D chart).After you are finished you chart should appear as in picture-1 above.

To add secondary axis, right click on any data bar shown in the chart window. Then click "Format Data Series"  >  Series Options  >  Plot Series On  >  Secondary axis.

As a result of above, both data series population and growth %age will appear. Now you can decide which data series to show on primary or secondary axis simply by right using the format data series option as explained above.

You can use two different chart types for both axis for better presentation. In the above example we have used line graph for growth %age. To do that simply select the data bar (red) and go to  "Chart tools"  >  Design  >  Change Chart Type  >  Select any line graph.