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Excel - Charting Different Orders of Magnitude: Revenue and Profit Percent in Excel - Episode 373

772 views · Published 29 October 2009 · 1:54 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Charting Different Orders of Magnitude: Revenue and Profit Percent in Excel.

Welcome back to another episode of the MrExcel netcast! In this video, we'll be discussing how to effectively chart data with different orders of magnitude. This is a common issue that many Excel users face, and I'm here to show you a simple solution.
During my recent seminars, I received a great question about charting. The individual had a chart with both Revenue and Profit percent, but the size of the revenue bars made it impossible to see the Gross Profit percent. The line was so small, it appeared to be at zero. So how can we fix this issue?
The solution lies in using the Charting toolbar. On the left-hand side, there's a drop-down where we can select the series we want to work with. In this case, we'll choose "Profit". Then, we'll click on the second button in the Charting toolbar, which is the Format button. From there, we can select "Format Data Series" and change the axis to be a secondary one.
But what if we can't even see the Profit series to right-click on it? That's where the Charting toolbar comes in handy. By selecting the series from the drop-down, we can easily access the Format button and make the necessary changes. We can even change the chart type of the secondary axis to better display the data.
And just like that, we have a chart that effectively shows both Revenue and Profit percent, even with their different orders of magnitude. This is a great way to visualize data and gain insights from it. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the MrExcel netcast, and be sure to join us tomorrow for more Excel tips and tricks!"

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) Question about charting
(00:23) Issue with chart size
(00:35) Solution using secondary axis
(00:45) Using Charting toolbar
(00:55) Selecting series and using Format button
(01:05) Changing axis to secondary
(01:15) Changing chart type
(01:30) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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Sometimes you want a chart to show two different kinds of data - for example, revenue, and gross profit percentage. If you create such a chart, the size of the revenue bars makes it impossible to see the detail in the profit percentage bars. The trick is to plot one of the series along a secondary axis. Episode 373 shows you how.

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