Excelling at Excel - How to quickly flip a chart

Have you ever created a chart in Excel only to find that the items appear backwards from what you intended? This happened to me the other day, and I recalled that I had posted the solution as part of a larger tip on creating a Gantt chart from a schedule in Excel.

This is such a useful trick, it bears repeating on its own (since not everyone who uses Excel will find it necessary to read our project management series) and with a little more detail.

First, select your chart by clicking on the border. Go to the Format tab, and in the dropdown box at the top left of your Ribbon that says Chart Area, and select the axis you want to flip (normally it's the Vertical (Category) Axis, at least in my experience ):

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Next click the Format Selection button directly beneath the dropdown list to open Axis Options:

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Now check the Categories in reverse order box and click Close. Your chart listing will be reversed.

Suzanne