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Patricia_Bloj's avatar
Patricia_Bloj
Copper Contributor
Jan 04, 2019

secondary axis option not available on mac

Hi everyone,

 

I need some help. I have recently changed to a Mac and I have the Excel version 16.16.5 for Mac. I am looking to create a progress pie chart that basically is using a doughnut shape pie chart with data on 2 axis. I don't seem to be able to find anywhere the secondary axis. I checked all advice I could find on Google but without any success. The secondary axis is not available in Format Data Series > Series Options or Add Chart Element > Axis Titles (which does not exist).

Can anyone help?

Thanks

19 Replies

  • steelmmr's avatar
    steelmmr
    Copper Contributor

    Patricia_Bloj 

    What I found to work is selecting all the data from the chart, then going to insert a chart and choosing a "combo chart". When you do this, do not pick the first option. I believe I had to pick the second option for it to allow me to have a secondary axis. Once I did this, it gave me the option under chart elements to add/delete the secondary axis. It gives you an option to do a secondary horizontal as well as a vertical. If this doesn't help, I believe looking into the data series menu and adding another legend. That whole menu is quite confusing to me, but when I looked to see what the difference was it seemed that there was a second legend option and it added another y-axis series. I hope this helps y'all!!!!! I am using mac version 16.55.

    • S_Masbox60's avatar
      S_Masbox60
      Copper Contributor

      steelmmrThat was absolutely the solution that I needed, thank you.  It seems weird that this option is not available on the standard bar graph.

      I made some edits and somehow ended up with 2 lines, but couldn't find  where/how.  What I'd really like is 2 bars vs 1 set of bars and one line.

       

      Thanks again!

  • swilson290's avatar
    swilson290
    Copper Contributor
    I’m on word and I found that clicking on the inside of the chart area (I.e. where the bars/lines are, not the outside with the numbers!) and clicking the white square in the middle of the secondary vertical axis, and dragging it to the left (so that there is actually space on the right side of the graph) helped. It allows space for there to actually be an axis title on the right side of the secondary axis. Before I done this there was no option for secondary axis title from add chart element > axis titles. After shuffling it around the secondary axis title option was made available from add chart element > axis titles > secondary vertical.

    I hope this helps!
    • Pongajim's avatar
      Pongajim
      Copper Contributor

      I need a second horizontal axis. Y axis remains the same but the timeline (dates) on the horizontal axis is different MS Office 2019.

       

      Help please.

      • GLMac's avatar
        GLMac
        Copper Contributor

         From another website, I just tried this and it worked. It is not intuitive because you first have to plot the data on a secondary vertical axis (which is not what you want), when you have selected the dataset you want on the secondary x axis (horizontal axis). However, when you tell excel to plot the data on the secondary vertical axis, and then look under "Add chart elements" when in "Chart Design" mode, then you can select "Axes" and both primary and secondary vertical and horizontal axes are an option, and so click on the secondary x axis.

        Add the secondary horizontal axis

        To add a secondary horizontal axis, do the following:

           1.   Add the secondary vertical axis to any of the data series (see https://www.officetooltips.com/excel_365/tips/how_to_create_two_vertical_axes_on_the_same_side.html

           2.   Select the data series which you want to see using the secondary horizontal axis.

           3.   On the Chart Design tab, in the Chart Layouts group, click the Add Chart Element drop-down list

        Choose the Axes list and then click Secondary Horizontal

        Pongajim

  • hbarr's avatar
    hbarr
    Copper Contributor

    I have a similar problem, but with an ordinary line chart.

     

    I have used secondary axes before in Excel, and I think it was in Office 2011 for Mac, but I can't be sure.

     

    The "Help" page tells how you can add a secondary axis in Word for Mac, but not Excel!

    That seems ridiculous.

     

    Hbarr

     

    I am running Microsoft Excel for Mac, Version 16.21.1 (190123), in Office 365.

    Using a new iMac Pro running MacOS 10.14.3 (the latest version)

     

     

    • McXcel's avatar
      McXcel
      Copper Contributor

      hbarr Patricia_Bloj I figured out how to do this on Mac. The help is just wrong (it should be right, but the menu apparently has a bug). 

       

      1. Select the series you want to add a secondary axis for

      2. Right-click (two-finger tap) on the series

      3. Select "Format Data Series..."

      4. In helper window on the right, you can choose to plot the series on primary or secondary axis.

    • McXcel's avatar
      McXcel
      Copper Contributor
      The Help is confusing--only the first step is for Word only. The rest of the steps apply to both Excel and Word. Unfortunately, if you follow the directions they still don't work. On Mac, the option to add a secondary axis is apparently absent.

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