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.
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.
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)).
Click on the graph. Under Chart Tools go to Layout > Error Bars > More Error Bars Options…
Select the series you want to work on first.
Vertical Error Bars > Custom > Specify Value
Specify the positive error value…
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.
Do the same for the negative error value if needed and hit OK.
HOLY CRAP! Different error bars! Finally, I know.
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!
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
Genius!
Thank you so much! I looked forever until I found this.
Thank you thank you thank you…ive been looking everywhere on how to do this!
Thanks so much! This has saved me soo much time!
Thank you! I spent a lot of days to reach this result…. I love you!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every other site Ive searched has had the same shit answers, but not this – it ACTUALLY WORKS
I cant thank you enough
Thank you very much! Very helpfull! I was always wondering how to do this
Thank you! It was really helpful:)
YOU’RE THE BEST i just wish i found this 2 hours ago
Thank you, thank you, thank you! how many hours i could have saved if i found this quicker…
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.
I wish to thank you greatly.
Cheers,
Giacomo
Bless your soul man! This saved me for all my labs in bio!
You have made me the happiest grad student as I was pulling my hair out over this.
Thank you so much. This tutorial was a lifesaver! Much appreciated
Saved me! You’re my hero. Thank you.
This blew my mind. So simple but I would have never thought to do it. Many thanks!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! this was totally helpful and saved me loads of time
Thanks so much for this tutorial. I would have spent hours and probably still not have figured out how to do this!
You’re awesome. Thanks for this!
Wow – what a hero! The most useful internet post for me personally that I have come across in a long time.
:’)
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!!
Thank you *so* much. Extremely helpful!
Aaaah finally, thank you so much!
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!