How to change axis labels order in a bar chart

Excel 365
Excel can display the data series in an inconvenient order for bar charts. For example, if you have a table with tasks for a Gantt chart, after creating a bar chart (see how to create a simple Gantt chart for more details), you expect to see tasks on the list arranged from top to bottom. Unexpectedly, Excel displays them in the reverse order:
Bar chart from lines in Excel 365

A similar inconvenient order Excel uses for the chart created from the table columns:

Bar chart from columns in Excel 365

See more about the competition chart.

To change the order of the labels on the axis, do the following:

   1.   Right-click the horizontal axis and click the Format Axis... in the popup menu (or double-click the axis):

Format Axis in popup menu Excel 365

   2.   On the Format Axis pane, on the Axis Options tab, in the Axis Options group:

  • Under Axis position, select the Category in reverse order checkbox to display the labels in the reverse order,
  • Optionally, under Horizontal axis crosses, choose the At maximum category option to return the horizontal axis on the bottom of the plot area:
    Reverse order in Format Axis pane Excel 365

Excel rebuilds the chart to display the axis labels in the reverse order:

Example of bar chart from lines in Excel 365
Example of bar chart from columns in Excel 365

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Creating a Gantt chart

Creating a Gantt chart

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart often used in project management applications like Microsoft Project. In the Gantt chart, the horizontal axis represents the total time span of the project, and each bar represents a project task: the left edge indicates the beginning moment of the activity, and the right edge indicates the estimated ending moment. The viewer can quickly see the duration of each task and identify overlapping tasks.
How to create a funny dog breeds lifespan chart in Excel

How to create a funny dog breeds lifespan chart in Excel

Span chart, also known as a range bar graph (range column graph), floating bar graph, difference graph, high-low graph, used to display the specific variable value range. Span charts are ideal for comparing ranges, and typically, each variable represents a particular category. All values for the selected category fall between minimal and maximal values that correspond to lower and upper bounds of the interval.
Customize the horizontal axis labels

Customize the horizontal axis labels

Excel provides very few options for formatting horizontal axis labels. You cannot format different axis labels with different colors or font sizes. Conditional formatting also only works in some cases. You need to implement some tricks to format the horizontal axis, for example:

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