Two-Level Axis Labels

Excel is great at creating charts. With some types of data, you may have a need for two-level axis labels for your chart. For instance, you may want something similar to the following along the X-axis for your chart:

  Pro | Team | Reg | Pro | Team | Reg ...
    Eastern US     |   Western US ...

Setting up such an arrangement in an Excel worksheet is easy, but getting the same result in a chart may not be as obvious.

Go ahead and set up your worksheet to reflect the column titles the way you want them. These column titles will end up as your X-axis labels. You could set them up as follows:

  |   A   |   B   |   C   |   D   |   E   |   F   |   G   |
1 |       |       Eastern US      |       Western US      |
2 |       |  Pro  |  Team |  Reg  |  Pro  |  Team |  Reg  |

1. In the first row, put your first major group title into cell B1.
2. Put your second major group title into cell E1.
3. In cells B2:G2 place your column labels.
4. Select cells B1:D1 and click the Merge and Center tool. (In Excel 2007 the Merge and Center tool is in the Alignment group of the Home tab on the ribbon.) The first major group title should now be centered over the first group of column labels.
5. Select cells E1:G1 and click the Merge and Center tool. The second major group title should now be centered over the second group of column labels.
6. Make the cells at B1:G2 bold. (This sets them off from your data.)
7. Place your row labels into column A, beginning at cell A3.
8. Place your data into the table, beginning at cell B3.

With your table completed, you are ready to create the chart. Just select your data table, including all the headings in the first two rows, then create your chart. Excel automatically recognizes that you have two rows being used for the X-axis labels, and formats the chart correctly. (See Figure 1.) Since the X-axis labels appear beneath the chart data, the order of the label rows is reversed—exactly as mentioned at the first of this tip.

Figure 1. Two-level axis labels are created automatically by Excel.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3203) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Two-Level Axis Labels.