Different Error bars for the Same Series in Excel Apr 17

After spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME trying to figure out how to get excel (>2004) to display DIFFERENT ERROR BARS for values on the SAME SERIES I thought I’d save all you other poor souls looking for an answer by providing an easy step-by-step guide.

excelerrorbars02

Alright, here’s what we have with our graph already made and our data laid out. The blue is one series and the red is another series. We want to apply error bars with different values to EACH bar in the graph.

excelerrorbars03

First thing we need to do is calculate the error for each condition. You can use standard deviation (STDEV) but I need standard error for this case (STDEV/SQRT(COUNT)).

excelerrorbars04

Click on the graph. Under Chart Tools go to Layout > Error Bars > More Error Bars Options…

excelerrorbars05

Select the series you want to work on first.

excelerrorbars06

Vertical Error Bars > Custom > Specify Value

excelerrorbars07

Specify the positive error value…

excelerrorbars08

By selecting the two cells that contain the error you previously calculated. The first cell will apply the error to the FIRST bar, the second cell will apply the error to the SECOND bar.

excelerrorbars09

Do the same for the negative error value if needed and hit OK.

excelerrorbars10

HOLY CRAP! Different error bars! Finally, I know.

excelerrorbars11

Do the same thing for the other series.

And there you have it, an illustrated guide on how to make different error bars for values in the same series in excel!

Similar Posts:

Category: Life  | Tags: ,
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

27 Responses

  1. 1
    Gobi 

    Thank you so much for this. I was looking everywhere to specifically do this for column graphs, but with no luck. You saved me a bunch of time :D

  2. 2
    Bil 

    Genius!

  3. 3
    Amy 

    Thank you so much! I looked forever until I found this.

  4. 4
    Sara 

    Thank you thank you thank you…ive been looking everywhere on how to do this!

  5. 5
    John 

    Thanks so much! This has saved me soo much time!

  6. 6
    Wallace 

    Thank you! I spent a lot of days to reach this result…. I love you!!!!

  7. 7
    jac 

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Every other site Ive searched has had the same shit answers, but not this – it ACTUALLY WORKS

    I cant thank you enough

  8. 8
    Bas 

    Thank you very much! Very helpfull! I was always wondering how to do this ;)

  9. 9
    Aga 

    Thank you! It was really helpful:)

  10. 10
    jasmine 

    YOU’RE THE BEST i just wish i found this 2 hours ago

  11. 11
    Elena 

    Thank you, thank you, thank you! how many hours i could have saved if i found this quicker…

  12. 12
    Anon 

    You are wonderful. I was having exactly this problem and couldn’t for the life of me figure it out not to mention I was having trouble with some of the simpler aspect too before this so I was about ready to throw my computer out the window at this point. Thank you for saving my computer from that horrible fate. :)

  13. 13
    Giacomo Bega 

    I wish to thank you greatly.

    Cheers,

    Giacomo

  14. 14
    Lucky 

    Bless your soul man! This saved me for all my labs in bio!

  15. 15
    Kurtis 

    You have made me the happiest grad student as I was pulling my hair out over this.

  16. 16
    Em 

    Thank you so much. This tutorial was a lifesaver! Much appreciated :)

  17. 17
    Thankful 

    Saved me! You’re my hero. Thank you.

  18. 18
    AD 

    This blew my mind. So simple but I would have never thought to do it. Many thanks!

  19. 19
    Tad 

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! this was totally helpful and saved me loads of time :)

  20. 20
    Lisa 

    Thanks so much for this tutorial. I would have spent hours and probably still not have figured out how to do this!

  21. 21
    Nasya 

    You’re awesome. Thanks for this!

  22. 22
    Benj 

    Wow – what a hero! The most useful internet post for me personally that I have come across in a long time.

  23. 23
    Sam 

    :’)

  24. 24
    sarah 

    Thank you so very much! I’ve been puzzled by this for years!!!

    Now there’s really no excuse for so many people who don’t show error bars!!

  25. 25
    Eric 

    Thank you *so* much. Extremely helpful!

  26. 26
    Lukas 

    Aaaah finally, thank you so much!

  27. 27
    Jeanine 

    Just found your information after about 2 days of worrying about how to do this and trying to use excel. I am so grateful that you shared your knowledge and did such a great job of explaining it, as this is the first graph I have had to produce with a computer in my life!

Leave a Reply » Log in