Setting Grid Line Intervals for a Radar Chart

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 12, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

John created a radar chart that includes 360 data points, one for each of the 360 degrees in the chart. Excel adds radial grid lines for each of those data points, but John would prefer to have a grid line only every 10 degrees in the chart. He wonders how he can customize the chart to reflect the desired grid lines.

There is no way to accomplish this task that we've been able to discover. A radar chart, as implemented by Excel, is a "circular" version of a line chart. Just as the horizontal axis of a line chart has one mark per data point, the radar chart has one spoke per data point.

There are other types of circular charts supported by Excel, and a different one may be more suitable for the way you want data represented. One good possibility is a polar plot. For good discussion of how you might go about this, see this blog post by Jon Peltier:

http://peltiertech.com/polar-plot-excel/

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11190) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Aborting a Macro and Retaining Control

If you need to exit a macro before it is finished running, you can do it using a brute force method, or you can build in ...

Discover More

Searching for Text that Doesn't End a Paragraph

The Find and Replace capabilities of Word are very powerful, particularly if you are using wildcards in your search. ...

Discover More

Boxes in Boxes

When you insert a text box within another text box, you may expect any text in the outer text box to wrap around the ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Removing a Trendline Error Message

Excel allows you to add trendlines to your charted data. It is possible, though, that lately you've been seeing a ...

Discover More

Plotting Times of Day

Got a chart created from your worksheet? You can plot times of day in the chart if you apply the simple techniques in ...

Discover More

Creating a Bar Chart for Temperatures

Excel can create a large variety of charts, but sometimes it can take some real creativity to get exactly the chart you ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 9?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.