I opened a new workbook in Excel 2010 and entered the data I used when writing this tutorial.

I created charts both ways: Starting with an XY, line, or column chart and adding bands, and starting with a chart with bands only, and adding XY, line, or column series.

I followed the steps as written, conscious not to add any steps or leave any steps out. The charts all ended up exactly as expected, that is, exactly as described in this article.

I’ve annotated and uploaded this new workbook, which you can download from HorizontalBandWorksheet.xlsx.

If you want, send your workbook to me at jon-at-peltiertech-dot-com. I’ll work it through for you.

I have, in fact, followed your examples for both ways (start with banded data first, and start with existing chart). I have even started with your data and followed your instructions to try to come up with the charts that you do. No dice. I’ve also tried to apply the procedure to my data … no dice. I only have positive data, like your example.

I have also had tremendous difficulty with Excel 2010 screwing up the graph when changing from primary to secondary axis. It looks fine when everything is referenced to the primary axis, but as soon as I change it to a secondary axis, the values (bands) get placed on the graph in random order. I’m trying to do a red, yellow, and green band (good, caution, bad) for my bands. Once I change them, the order gets mixed up, and it’s always a different order. Some of your instructions are also set up significantly different than Excel 2003 (what I used to use), so some of your instructions don’t have a 1:1 mapping to Excel 2010. I have had to guess, and I may be guessing incorrectly, but I’ve tried to do the best I can with what MS has given.

Regards,
Ron

I wrote this tutorial using Excel 2007, and the protocol should be the same in 2010.

Where does your approach fail? Are you starting from scratch with a banded chart and adding your data, or are you adding bands to an existing chart? Does your value axis include negative and positive numbers?

I’ve spent 3 hours meticulously following these instructions, and it doesn’t work. I am using Excel 2010 … Did Microsoft just make this impossible to do with 2010?

I think about actions I have to do with the chart and it’s clear, more likely i’ve missed some step previously, i’ll try the actions once again.

Unfortunately, I am not the owner of this report, so I am not authorized to divide two axes in two charts :/

You’ll have to figure out which set of axes you can put the bands on, and modify the protocol accordingly.

Is this a case where the data would be better in two charts (or in a panel chart) than on two axes? This is true of 99% of the dual axis charts you’ll ever encounter.