Series order in a chart legend.

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Phil - 26 Sep 2005 22:13 GMT

I want to reorder the series in a chart. The posting talk about editing a
command line. But I do not see a command line and Excel help does not know
what a command line is. When I double clik on the series (as suggested in the
postings), the menu does not offer a tab for reordering the entries. It only
offer changing the text size or patterns in the legend. So why is this so
difficult to accomplish?

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Pim - 27 Sep 2005 01:11 GMT

What type of graph are you plotting?

Select the axis of the data that you want to change- by clicking on the
axis (two
squares should appear on either side of the axis)- Not the data
series... either double click or right click and select 'Format Axis'.
This brings up a pop-up form, go to the scale tab. On the bottom of the
form there are three check boxes, select the middle box- categories in
reverse order. That should work-
if not please let me know-
If you'd like to use code to do it- see below, the line in blue is the
relevant one in the with block.
cheers,
pim

ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(1).Activate
With ActiveChart.Axes(xlCategory)
.CrossesAt = 1
.TickLabelSpacing = 1
.TickMarkSpacing = 1
.AxisBetweenCategories = True
.ReversePlotOrder = True
.MajorTickMark = xlOutside
.MinorTickMark = xlNone
.TickLabelPosition = xlLow
End With

Signature

Pim

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Christopher Scott [MSFT] - 28 Sep 2005 07:49 GMT

It sounds like maybe you are double clicking the series in the legend. You
want to double click the series (the bar/column/data point) in the plot area
instead. From there there should be a tab called "Series Order" where you can
move them up and down.

Signature

Thanks,
Christopher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

> I want to reorder the series in a chart. The posting talk about editing a
> command line. But I do not see a command line and Excel help does not know
> what a command line is. When I double clik on the series (as suggested in the
> postings), the menu does not offer a tab for reordering the entries. It only
> offer changing the text size or patterns in the legend. So why is this so
> difficult to accomplish?

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Jon Peltier - 28 Sep 2005 20:10 GMT

Note that Excel only allows you to reorder similar series. For example, if you have
two column series and two line series in the chart, you can only reorder the line
series amongst themselves, and likewise the column series. You cannot move the line
series legend entries before the column series entries. Similarly, within a group,
the secondary axis series are always listed after the primary axis series.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

> It sounds like maybe you are double clicking the series in the legend. You
> want to double click the series (the bar/column/data point) in the plot area
> instead. From there there should be a tab called "Series Order" where you can
> move them up and down.

Reply to this Message