Comments on: Error Bars in Excel 2007 Charts

By: Stefanos

Stefanos — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:14:26 +0000

Nevermind, I found it on my own :)
thank you anyway.

It seems I shouldn’t have used box B65 which contained the formula of STDEV. Instead I used another box where I put in the value manually and it worked

By: Stefanos

Stefanos — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:01:24 +0000

I’m trying to make a chart for an experiment. I have my own result and the class’s average result. Thus i deduced the standard deviation for the class is 607 and our teacher said our own deviation should read 0

Anyway, then we have to create a graph with an error bar showing only on the Class’s Average Results Bar while the bar showing My Result should have a non-appearable error bar (meaning it will be there but won’t stretch)

How do I have to set my Data in Positive and Negative Boxes to achieve this??

So far I get the opposite result. The error bar stretches on My Result vertical bar but won’t stretch at all on the other.

I use 2 boxes B65 (standard deviation = 607) and B66 (my deviation = 0) to set the data field and i select it for both positive and negative text boxes by clicking shift and dragging the cursor over B65 and B66.

How can I achieve the result I want?

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:12:36 +0000

Hi Bertrand -

Unfortunately, Excel does not expose the current error bar value range to VBA. In cases like this I try to put the error bar values in a range which has a standard offset from the series value range. Then VBA can still figure out what range to use for error bars.

By: Bertrand

Bertrand — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:57:14 +0000

John,
Thanks for this helpful post. I have a related issue: In order to build a dashboard, I have copied the same chart multiple times on the same page. Modifying the series source data ranges of each chart with VBA is no problem, but I have desperately searched for a solution to also change the error bars custom values. Is there a way to read the current range address so that it can be modified ? It seems you can only set it with the errorbar function, as you show in your add-in.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:40:13 +0000

Thanks a lot, your addon made my life so much easier!

By: Rahil

Rahil — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:51:43 +0000

Thank you so much, i’ve been looking for weeks for an easier way to do this.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:00:29 +0000

Brian -

Use the Custom Value setting to apply individual values to individual points. These are values you’ve calculated and placed into a range, usually adjacent to the X or Y values. I describe it about midway through this article.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:09:03 +0000

Jon,
Thanks for taking the time to put together such a great piece. Like many others, getting used to 2007 drove me crazy for a while. I have one remaining issue that still leaves me scratching my head.
In a plotted XY graph (lets say its a scatter plot), you click on a single point and it selects the entire series. I have personally NEVER worked with a data set that has the same STDEV for every average in a series. Why is that the default? I use your recommended custom option in settng values for the bar, but still have not figured out how to individualize unique bars for individual averages within a single series.
How do I do this? I acknowledge that the answer may be obvious, but I have been trying the same thing over and over again for an hour and have made myself a crazy person.
Thanks again for a helpful post!
bd

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:07:41 +0000

Lizz -

To make error bars of different sizes for each point, put the values into a range of cells (it is helpful to plase it in the same block as the X-Y data), then select this range when adding custom error bars. The protocol is described 2/3 of the way through the article, but here it is again:

Using the 2007 interface, first select the series, then on the Chart Tools > Layout tab, choose Error Bars > More Error Bars Options, select Custom under Error Amount, click the Select Values button, and select the range.

In my utility, select the series, click on the Error Bars button on any of the three Chart Tools tabs, and select the custom range using the dialog.

You can have different sized error bars for each point in the positive and negative Y directions, and if it’s an XY series, in the positive and negative X direction.

By: Lizz

Lizz — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:54:57 +0000

Hi, this was very helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it. I spent a long time looking for the option to make the error bars and was about to go insane. I have a question, though it’s more general. Can you make error bars of different sizes on the same series?