# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel Charting & Pivots >  >  How do I set a goal line in a bar graph?

## mtwelsh72

I have a bar graph that graphs percentages to goal, I would like to display a
line within the bar graph that represents the goal.  If possible, I would
then like to have the background of the graph below the goal line to be red,
and above the goal line to be another color.  Can this be done?

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## Andy Pope

Hi,

The following pages have examples of how to add lines.

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/AddLine.html
http://tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts...nes/index.html
http://www.andypope.info/charts/averageline.htm
http://www.processtrends.com/pg_char...ontal_line.htm

Cheers
Andy

mtwelsh72 wrote:
> I have a bar graph that graphs percentages to goal, I would like to display a
> line within the bar graph that represents the goal.  If possible, I would
> then like to have the background of the graph below the goal line to be red,
> and above the goal line to be another color.  Can this be done?

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info

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## mtwelsh72

Thank you Andy.

I am almost there.  I am having a difficult time finding the "uncheck values
cross between categorys" section in the the formatting windows.  I'm using
Excel 2003, would it be called something different?

Currently my spreadsheet shows the bars (performance) and I have the line
representing their goal, however, it does not go from edge to edge.  It
currently goes from the first performance to the last performance.

Can you help?

"Andy Pope" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> The following pages have examples of how to add lines.
>
> http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/AddLine.html
> http://tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts...nes/index.html
> http://www.andypope.info/charts/averageline.htm
> http://www.processtrends.com/pg_char...ontal_line.htm
>
> Cheers
> Andy
>
> mtwelsh72 wrote:
> > I have a bar graph that graphs percentages to goal, I would like to display a
> > line within the bar graph that represents the goal.  If possible, I would
> > then like to have the background of the graph below the goal line to be red,
> > and above the goal line to be another color.  Can this be done?
>
> --
>
> Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
> http://www.andypope.info
>

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## Andy Pope

To get the line to go from edge to edge you will need to put it on the
secondary axis. Then you Chart options to enable the secondary X axis.
Double click the secondary x axis and on the scale tab you should find
the crosses between categories.

Cheers
Andy

mtwelsh72 wrote:
> Thank you Andy.
>
> I am almost there.  I am having a difficult time finding the "uncheck values
> cross between categorys" section in the the formatting windows.  I'm using
> Excel 2003, would it be called something different?
>
> Currently my spreadsheet shows the bars (performance) and I have the line
> representing their goal, however, it does not go from edge to edge.  It
> currently goes from the first performance to the last performance.
>
> Can you help?
>
> "Andy Pope" wrote:
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>The following pages have examples of how to add lines.
>>
>>http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/AddLine.html
>>http://tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts...nes/index.html
>>http://www.andypope.info/charts/averageline.htm
>>http://www.processtrends.com/pg_char...ontal_line.htm
>>
>>Cheers
>>Andy
>>
>>mtwelsh72 wrote:
>>
>>>I have a bar graph that graphs percentages to goal, I would like to display a
>>>line within the bar graph that represents the goal.  If possible, I would
>>>then like to have the background of the graph below the goal line to be red,
>>>and above the goal line to be another color.  Can this be done?
>>
>>--
>>
>>Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
>>http://www.andypope.info
>>

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info

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## Sellenzz

Yeah I just set up a column next to my other data with the goal. This worked great, as Im using pivot. All I do is pivot the goal column right into the data area

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