Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Reordering the Display of a Data Series.

Reordering the Display of a Data Series

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 30, 2021)

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When you create a chart in Excel, you may have a need to change the order in which the data series are displayed in the chart. One way to do this, of course, is to change the order of the data in the underlying worksheet range. For instance, you can sort the data in the worksheet range, and the change in order should be reflected in the chart based on that data.

Another way is to manually customize the chart to rearrange the data series. Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on one of the data series that you want to move. Excel displays a Context menu.
  2. Select the Select Data option from the Context menu. Excel displays the Select Data Source dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Select Data Source dialog box.

  3. In the list of data series at the left of the dialog box, click once on the one you want to move.
  4. Use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow buttons to reposition the selected data series.
  5. When finished, click OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6237) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Reordering the Display of a Data Series.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is eight minus 1?

2018-02-06 07:34:50

me

And how do I do this in vba scrip???

2018-01-16 03:23:02

gerdami

Unfortunately, after having reordered the data series, a click on the chart no longer shows the data range.

2015-06-08 11:19:09

Sophie

Allen, I tried this in Excel 2013, but all the options under Legend Entry (Series) are greyed out.

2014-05-21 12:53:32

Surendera M. Bhanot

People do not know much about the harts and Graph maipulations. The Tips recently appearing are making us wiser. Thanks Allen Wyatt for bringing them to us.

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