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You are here: Home / Design / Charts, tables & diagrams / Switch rows and columns in a chart

Switch rows and columns in a chart

June 12, 2015 by Ellen Finkelstein 9 Comments

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Have you ever created a chart in PowerPoint from data in Excel and discovered that it was configured all wrong? For example, here’s some data in Excel and you want to highlight the change of each income stream from year to year.

powerpoint--tips-switch-row-column-chart-1

If you just select and copy that data, start a chart in PowerPoint, choose the default column chart (perhaps not the best idea–I’ll explain in a minute), and paste, you get the following chart.

powerpoint--tips-switch-row-column-chart-2

powerpoint--tips-switch-row-column-chart-3That is SO wrong. PowerPoint has chosen to group the data by category instead of by year. The way to fix this is to switch the rows and the columns. The problem is that the Switch Row/Column button on the Chart Tools Design tab is grayed out.

Apparently, you have to edit and select the data to switch the rows and columns. So here’s what you need to do:

  1. Click the Edit Data button.
  2. Click the Select Data button.
  3. Now, you can click the Switch Row/Column button.

When you do that, here’s what the chart looks like.

powerpoint--tips-switch-row-column-chart-4

It makes more sense, right?

But it’s still difficult to see the trend over time for each type of income stream. When you want to show change over time, a line chart often makes more sense.

After changing the chart to a line chart and increasing the font size, here’s what it looks like.

powerpoint--tips-switch-row-column-chart-5

Now you can see clearly how the various income streams have changed.

3 orange large asterisks

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues who might need help formatting their charts. Use the sharing buttons below.

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READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Related posts:

  1. Create a PowerPoint chart/graph with 2 Y-axes and 2 chart types
  2. Changing the order of items in a chart
  3. Animate a chart or table
  4. Adjust the location of the X (horizontal) chart axis in a PowerPoint chart

Filed Under: Charts, tables & diagrams Tagged With: chart, columns, graphc, rows, switch

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Bradley Elliot
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Bradley Elliot

Nice information, thanks for a share.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 years ago
Joe
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Joe

The button is still greyed out.

Vote Up12Vote Down 
6 years ago
Luis Bouzada
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Luis Bouzada

It did not fix the problem, still in grey

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4 years ago
John
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John

Where is the edit data button

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4 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
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Ellen Finkelstein

On the Chart Tools Design tab. there’s a screenshot in the blog post.

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4 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
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Ellen Finkelstein

Make sure that the chart is selected.

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4 years ago
yokun
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yokun

Thaaaaaank you!!!!!!

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3 years ago
fdks
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fdks

it doesnt work

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2 years ago
Stones
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Stones

Thank you!!!!!!!!

Vote Up0Vote Down 
2 years ago
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