Add or remove series lines, drop lines, high-low lines, or up-down bars in a chart

In Excel, you can add predefined series lines, drop lines, high-low lines and up-down bars to make a specific charts (such as 2-D stacked bar and column charts, line charts, pie of pie and bar of pie charts, area charts, and stock charts) easier to read. If you no longer need the lines or bars, you can remove them.

For more information about drawing your own lines, see Draw or delete a line or connector.

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Learn about predefined lines and bars that you can add to a chart

Add predefined lines or bars to a chart

Remove predefined lines or bars from a chart

Learn about predefined lines and bars that you can add to a chart

Depending on the chart type that you use, you can add one of the following lines or bars:

• Series lines    These lines connect the data series in 2-D stacked bar and column charts to emphasize the difference in measurement between each data series. Pie of pie and bar of pie charts display series lines by default to connect the main pie chart with the secondary pie or bar chart.

  

• Drop lines    Available in 2-D and 3-D area and line charts, these lines extend from data points to the horizontal (category) axis to help clarify where one data marker ends and the next data marker starts.

  

• High-low lines    Available in 2-D line charts and displayed by default in stock charts, high-low lines extend from the highest value to the lowest value in each category.

  

• Up-down bars    Useful in line charts with multiple data series, up-down bars indicate the difference between data points in the first data series and the last data series. By default, these bars are also added to stock charts, such as Open-High-Low-Close and Volume-Open-High-Low-Close.

  

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Add predefined lines or bars to a chart

1. Click the 2-D stacked bar, column, line, pie of pie, bar of pie, area, or stock chart to which you want to add lines or bars.

   This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.

2. On the Layout tab, in the Analysis group, do one of the following:

   • Click Lines, and then click the line type option that you want.

     Note: Different line type options are available for different chart types.

   • Click Up/Down Bars, and then click Up/Down Bars.

Tip: You can change the format of the series lines, drop lines, high-low lines, or up-down bars that you display in a chart. For more information, see Format chart elements.

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Remove predefined lines or bars from a chart

1. Click the 2-D stacked bar, column, line, pie of pie, bar of pie, area, or stock chart that displays predefined lines or bars.

   This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.

2. On the Layout tab, in the Analysis group, click Lines or Up/Down Bars, and then click None to remove lines or bars from a chart.

   

   Tip: You can also remove lines or bars immediately after you add them to the chart by clicking Undo on the Quick Access Toolbar or by pressing CTRL+Z.

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