#Create a line chart in excel for mac how to

You can also use the Excel 97-2003 menu-based shortcut, which is Alt + E + S (for Edit menu > Paste Special). Paste Special is at the bottom of the pop-up menu. To find Paste Special, click on the down arrow on the Paste button on the Home tab of Excel’s ribbon. If you copy a range and use the right click menu on a chart, the only option is a regular Paste, and Excel doesn’t always correctly guess how it should paste the data. If you don’t use Paste Special often, it might be hard to find. We probably also want to remove the markers from our horizontal line.

We have to format the axis and type 6 into the box for Maximum. When the data is first added, the autoscaled X axis changes its maximum from 6 to 8, so the line doesn’t span the entire chart. We set up a dummy range with our initial and final X and Y values (below, to the left of the top chart), copy the range, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data to the chart (see below for details on Paste Special). This is easy, a line simply connects two points, right? It should span the chart, starting at X = 0 and ending at X = 6. Let’s say we want a horizontal line at Y = 2.5. Add a Horizontal Line to an XY Scatter ChartĪn XY Scatter chart is the easiest case.

#Create a line chart in excel for mac how to

The examples below show how to make combination charts, where an XY-Scatter-type series is added as a horizontal line to another type of chart. And sometimes they just seem to move whenever they feel like it.

Since they are independent of the chart’s data, they may not move when the data changes. Since they are drawn freehand (or free-mouse), they aren’t positioned accurately. We won’t even talk about trying to draw lines using the items on the Shapes menu. This tutorial shows how to add horizontal lines to several common types of Excel chart. Seems easy enough, but often the result is less than ideal. The horizontal line may reference some target value or limit, and adding the horizontal line makes it easy to see where values are above and below this reference value. A common task is to add a horizontal line to an Excel chart.