Axcel charts: split vertical axis

Question

Hello,

I'd like to know if it is possible to split a vertical axis into two in order to isolate "extreme" data and keep a good readibility on the "standard" data

Eg, I have sales as follows

Q1 2010 = 100

Q2 2010 = 120

Q3 2010 = 800

Q4 2010 = 130

Q1 2011 = 135

etc.

In this example, I call "standard" data all of the sales except the Q3 2010 = 800

> I'd like the vertical axis of the chart to start from 0 up to 150, and then go let's say between 700 and 900.

> I am often confronted to one or two "extreme" value I treat by

* either I manually reduced the axis max value (eg in the example to 150), but the problem is that I lose the info of the 800;

* or I keep the axis from 0 to 800, but my "standard" values will nearly all look the same

I think I already saw a chart that divide the axis into 2 parts but I cannot find out how to do it.

Thanks in advance for your help !

SB

Answer 1

Excel doesn't have built-in support for that, but you can simulate the effect with a bit of work.

See http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/BrokenYAxis.html and http://andypope.info/charts/brokencolumn.htm.

Answer 2

Hello,

Thanks for your quick feedback. So it's doable but a big hassle to get to the results.

Given the quantity of charts and the diversity of data I have, these 2 ways are a no go for me :/

Thanks again for your answer, and if somebody else has a magic recipe, I'll be happy to read it !

SB