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Excel Chart - Highlight Line Segment - Best Method - Episode 1016

735 views · Published 15 June 2009 · 2:06 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial - Chart Highlight Line Segment - Best Method.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In this episode, we're going to revisit a common problem that seems to come up every two weeks - how to highlight a specific line segment in an Excel chart. I've received some great emails from viewers Tom and Thor, who have come up with a clever solution using Excel 2003. Let's dive in and see how they did it.

We start with a massive amount of data and need to find a way to analyze it effectively. The solution? A pivot table. But the challenge comes when we want to highlight a specific line segment, such as keeping the September and May data points below 20. Tom and Thor's solution involves using a large negative number in those months and setting the scale of the chart to automatically adjust to a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 6000, with 1000 unit increments. This results in a slightly diagonal line that straightens out due to the large negative number. You can experiment with different negative numbers to find the best fit for your data.

But fear not, Excel 2007 users - this issue is irrelevant for you as the program automatically adjusts the line segments to the bottom axis. However, it's always great to learn new tricks and solutions, so a big thanks to Tom and Thor for their clever solution in Excel 2003. And a big thanks to all of you for stopping by and watching this netcast. Don't forget to check out our other episodes for more Excel tips and tricks. See you next time!

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Tom and Thor send in better ways to force the area chart under a portion of a line chart to drop to zero. Episode 1036 shows you how.

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction to the MrExcel netcast with Bill Jelen
(00:14) Revisiting a previous episode and receiving helpful solutions from viewers
(00:32) Using a large negative number to adjust the scale of an area chart
(01:04) Experimenting with different negative numbers to straighten out the chart
(01:27) Excel 2007 automatically adjusts the chart, making this issue irrelevant
(01:38) Thanking viewers for their solutions and signing off
(01:52) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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