How to Put Two Graphs Together in Excel on a Mac
By Elizabeth Mott
Microsoft Excel charts transform raw numbers into visualizations that clarify the relationships among your data and help reveal underlying trends. Some worksheets combine values that interrelate but that include more than one type of information. Whether you want to highlight a set of values for emphasis or for contrast, use Excel's combination charts to achieve your objective. As their name makes clear, these multifaceted data presentations enable you to use more than one type of chart together, sharing the same X and Y axes.
Enter the data for a chart that includes at least two data series. Each row or column of data in your worksheet constitutes a series, with the columns defining the series that display by default along the horizontal or X axis of a chart. Use the first row and column of your worksheet to enter labels that identify your data.
Click and drag through the cells in which you entered your data to select all the series you want to include in your chart. If your worksheet contains a large number of active rows or columns, you can click on the intersection of the row and column headings to select the entire worksheet.
Switch to the Charts tab of the Excel ribbon and select a chart type from the Insert Chart group. Most combination charts meld together a column or bar chart with a line chart.
Click on one of its columns or bars to select the data series you want to change to a different chart type. In the Charts tab of the Excel ribbon, select a type from the Change Series Chart Type group.
Tips
If your chart data includes more than two series, you can create a combination chart that uses three different chart types, one for each series.
If you combine two charts of the same type, your results may be difficult to understand because of the lack of visual differentiation between them. For the same reason, if you combine two chart types that present information similarly but in different orientations -- for example, a column and a bar chart -- you may be unhappy with your output.
Each time you redefine a data series as a contrasting combination chart type, Microsoft Excel displays it behind the series you previously defined.
If you try to turn a data series into a chart type that requires more than one series, Excel adds the new chart using the data in all your data series. For example, if you create a three-series chart in line format, turn one data series into a column chart and try to transform the third series into a doughnut chart, the result shows your first series as a line, the second as a column behind the line and all three series as a doughnut behind the other two data series. In this scenario, the third series does not display as a separate chart type by itself.
Warnings
You can't create a combination chart using 3D chart types. Limit your selections to 2D options.
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Elizabeth Mott has been a writer since 1983. Mott has extensive experience writing advertising copy for everything from kitchen appliances and financial services to education and tourism. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Indiana State University.