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How to Add Error Bars in Excel
Get more accurate estimates and measurements
By Lisa Mildon Lisa Mildon Lifewire Technology Review Board Member & Quality Team Editor Southern New Hampshire University Lisa Mildon is a Lifewire writer and an IT professional with 30 years of experience. Her writing has appeared in Geekisphere and other publications. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on December 29, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email MS Office Excel Word Powerpoint Outlook What to Know
Select an Excel chart. Choose the Chart Elements icon (+). Select Error Bars (or tap the arrow and choose More Options).In the Add Error Bars dialog that opens, choose which series to customize and select OK. Make adjustments in the side window.Select Error Bars > More Options for error bar direction, end style, customized values, and positive and negative error values. This article explains how to add Error Bars to a chart in an Excel spreadsheet. This information applies to Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, and Microsoft 365. How to Add Error Bars in Excel
Whether you’re a statistician or need to track variables in your monthly sales, Error Bars in Excel can provide a great visual on just how accurate your numbers or measurements are compared to the actual value. Adding Error Bars to your Excel chart is a relatively simple process. Best of all, if you need to remove it, simply reverse the instructions. Select the chart within your Excel spreadsheet. Select Chart Elements, represented by a green plus (+) sign next to the top right of the chart. Select Error Bars. You can also select the arrow next to Error Bars, then select Standard Error, Percentage, Standard Deviation, or More Options. Standard Error, Percentage, and Standard Deviation are predefined in Excel. For more customized settings, select More Options. The Add Error Bars dialog will open up. Choose which Series to customize, then select OK. A side window will open within Excel. Here you can adjust the Direction, End Style, and the Error Amount of the Error Bar using a Fixed value, Percentage, Standard deviation, Standard error, or create a Custom value. Using Error Bars' More Options
If you choose to customize your error bars in your chart, as explained above, there is the More Options setting. More Options gives you the ability to make several customizations, including some colorization of different aspects of the Error Bars. After selecting Error Bars > More Options, you’ll be prompted to select which series to add Error Bars to. Select the Series, then select OK. The Format Error Bars side window will open. Depending on what type of chart you have, the options will change slightly. In this example, a horizontal bar chart was chosen. Scatter charts can display both horizontal and vertical error bars. To get rid of them, select them, then press the Delete key. The Horizontal Error Bar section contains 2 different settings. Under Direction, you have a few options for the Error Bar: Both: Error Bar goes in both directions Minus: Error Bar goes to the right of the linePlus: Error Bar goes to the left of the line The End Style gives you the option to have a Cap or No Cap on the end of your Error Bar. The last section sets the Error Amount. Here you can set a customized Fixed value, Percentage, or Standard Deviation. You can also select Standard Error or Custom to add further customization to the Error Amount. If you choose Custom, select Specify Value. From here, you can adjust the Positive and Negative Error Value. Once set, select OK. You can repeat this process for each series by selecting the dropdown menu next to Error Bar Options. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to Create a Report in Excel How to Find Variance in Excel How to Create Exploding Pie Charts in Excel How to Change the Number of Decimal Places in Excel How to Create a Timeline in Excel How to Password Protect an Excel File How to Add a Secondary Axis in Excel Use Excel's EOMONTH Function to Add or Subtract Months How to Use the STDEV Function in Excel How to Use the DAY function in Excel How to Make a Bar Graph in Excel How to Make a Box and Whisker Plot in Excel How to Create a Histogram in Excel for Windows or Mac How to Create an 8 Column Chart in Excel How to Add Groups to Your Shortcut Bar on Facebook The 12 Best Tips for Using Excel for Android in 2022 Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies