How-to Close the Gaps Between Chart Series in an Excel Stacked Clustered Column Chart

Many users like to create a chart that Excel doesn’t have as a chart type.  It is a combination of a clustered column and a stacked column.  There are tutorials out that that are somewhat complicated, but you can check out an easier way on this article:

How-to Easily Create a Stacked Clustered Column Chart in Excel

The cool thing was when I actually saw a user need to use it and they wanted to know how to do this:

How-to Add Centered Labels Above an Excel Clustered Stacked Column Chart

Then I recently saw a question wanting one more tweak to the model and this was our last Excel challenge.  In a nut shell, using this data set:

A B C D E
1 January February
2 Actuals Plan Actuals Plan
3 group A 250.48 300.58 187.15 155.96
4 group B 306.00 367.20 382.51 318.76
5 group C 315.00 378.00 425.38 354.48
6 TOTAL 871.48 1,045.78 995.04 829.20

Instead of creating this chart, how can we shrink the gaps in the stacked columns like thisConfused smile:image

And this just won’t do:image





We want this:image

 

The Breakdown

1) Create Chart Data Range

2) Unmerge Cells January and February

3) Move January and February one cell left

4) Create Stacked Column Chart

5) Choose Gap Width of 10%

6) Add Space in Cell I3 to correct tick marks

 





Step-by-Step

1) Create Chart Data Range

This is our data set, but it won’t work for what we need.

A B C D E
1 January February
2 Actuals Plan Actuals Plan
3 group A 250.48 300.58 187.15 155.96
4 group B 306.00 367.20 382.51 318.76
5 group C 315.00 378.00 425.38 354.48
6 TOTAL 871.48 1,045.78 995.04 829.20

We need to add padding cells.  One before January column, two before the February column.





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Your data set will look like this:

A B C D E F G H I
1 January February
2 Actuals Plan Actuals Plan
3 group A 250.48 300.58 187.15 155.96
4 group B 306.00 367.20 382.51 318.76
5 group C 315.00 378.00 425.38 354.48
6 TOTAL 871.48 1,045.78 995.04 829.20

 

2) Unmerge Cells January and February

We should unmerge the cells for January and February so that Excel will properly use them in the chart and so that we can move them in the next step.

Your data set will look like this:

A B C D E F G H
1 January February
2 Actuals Plan Actuals Plan
3 group A 250.48 300.58 187.15 155.96
4 group B 306.00 367.20 382.51 318.76
5 group C 315.00 378.00 425.38 354.48
6 TOTAL 871.48 1,045.78 995.04 829.20

 





3) Move January and February one cell left

We need January and February moved over one cell to the left so that Excel can create the multi-level horizontal axis.

Your data set will look like this:

A B C D E F G H I
1 January February
2 Actuals Plan Actuals Plan
3 group A 250.48 300.58 187.15 155.96
4 group B 306.00 367.20 382.51 318.76
5 group C 315.00 378.00 425.38 354.48
6 TOTAL 871.48 1,045.78 995.04 829.20

 

4) Create Stacked Column Chart

Now highlight A1:I6 and create a stacked column chart by going to your Insert Ribbon and choosing the Stacked Column Chart type.  image

Your chart will now look like this:image

 

 

 





5) Choose Gap Width of 10%

Now we can make it a little better by changing the gap width of the chart series to 10%.  First select a data series and then press CTRL+1 to bring up the Chart Series Options and change the Gap Width to 10%

image

Your chart should now look like this (Note – I also moved the legend to the right but you should check out the video on why I did this and also another way to possibly solve this challenge):image

 

6) Add Space in Cell I3 to correct tick marks

Did you notice in the previous graph on step 5 had an extra tick mark?  You can see it here:image

To get rid of this extra chart axis tick mark, you need to add a space in cell I3.  Then Excel will think that the I column is part of the February series and not a new series.  So it will get rid of the extra tick mark and your final chart will look like this:image

 

Video Tutorial





You can see this and another possible solution in this video demonstration:

 

File Download

You can download the free sample template file here:

How-to-set-the-distance-between-chart-series-in-stacked-column-chart.xlsx

 

Thanks to Don and Peter who came up with the solutions.  And THANKS to you all for being a fan and sharing it with your co-workers.

Steve=True





10 COMMENTS

  1. Steve,
    I just found your blog by searching on how to create this clustered stacked column. I have a simple data table where I am trying to create just such a chart but am having great difficulty trying to copy what you did.
    Is there a way I can share my table with you.
    Many thanks,
    Nathan




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  3. Thank you so much for this tutorial!
    I was struggling with the correct spacing of the tick marks
    and your trick was exactly what I was looking for!
    Wonderful site – neat and clean!

  4. Steve, thank you as well for helping me created a clustered stacked chart in excel with the proper gaps between the data sets. One more question, is there any way to shrink the distance of that gap between the January and February sets?

  5. Thanks for this excellent guide Steve! I am just having one problem – entering a space doesn’t seem to be working to make the extra marking go away. Do you have any advice on what might be going wrong here?

    • Hi Shreya, I assume you mean the tick marks on the horizontal axis. you should try and add or remove text (typically a “space”) in different blank cells to see how it affects the horizontal axis.

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