To “Readjust spacing” you need to select the plot area and drag the left and right edges inward to create margins for the labels. In some tutorials I include the step to make room before I add the labels.

The problem with the stacked chart with separation was an incorrect formula, which I’ve corrected off-line.

again Stacked Charts with Sep. Now it works. But formatting the dummy label series after assigning the y-labels with Rob’s tool is difficult since you can hardly select the data series without the labels associated to each data point. Therefore the formatting should be done before using XY Chart Labeler.
At the end you write “Readjust spacing as needed.” – How? The y-labels stick at the y-axis ticks. How do I make them to be left assigned with some spacings?
But nevertheless, your technique is a nice advice to do dashboards.

The Stacked Charts with Sep. shows in all areas the *same* function/series, although the data series definitions are in line with rows/columns addresses.

Cheers Michael

[This is compiled from several comments -JP]

Thanks for the comment. When you create the chart, make sure the data is plotted with series in columns. I’ve inserted a note in the original page to clarify this.

Also thanks for reporting the broken link. It’s fixed.

Love the Stack bars with verticle separation. Great idea.

Not too hot on the reference bars though. If you didn’t read the explanation, it woluld take too long (I believe) to figure out what the the empty boxes around each series are actually related. This goes in the “not intuitive enough” box.

And as you know undoubtedly know, non-intuitive charts just don’t make it to prime time. I have a few clients that ordered the removal of the bullet graphs I implemented because they didn’t know what they showed. We couldn’t afford the realestate on their dashboard for an explanation of the charts.

Great post.

By the way, the link to “Stacked Charts With Vertical Separation” returns a 404 page not found.