Show “Plus or Minus” with Error Bars

When it’s useful to indicate the degree of uncertainty for a data series—the “plus or minus” range—add error bars. Double-click the data series to display the Format Data Series dialog box. Click the X Error Bars tab or the Y Error Bars tab, and then specify the display you want and how the error amount should be obtained.

How is the error amount obtained?   On the two error bars tabs in the Format Data Series dialog box, specify the error amount; it can be a fixed value, a percentage of each value in the data series, a number of standard deviations, the standard error, or another error value in a worksheet range.

The error bars belong to the data series   Error bars are obtained from the values in the associated data series. If you delete or move the data series, the error bars are also deleted or moved. Modify the error bars   To change the color, style, and line weight for all error bars associated with a data series, double-click one error bar. In the Format Error Bars dialog box, change the look on the Patterns tab. You can change other characteristics on the X Error Bars tab and the Y Error Bars tab. Use error bars with other chart types   You can add error bars to 2-D area, bar, column, bubble, and line charts, but not to 3-D charts.

Next Steps

To	See
Custom-format a chart and save the formatting to use for other charts	Customize the Look of a Chart
Create a link to, or insert, a chart in a Microsoft Word document or Microsoft PowerPoint presentation	Add a Chart to a Document or Presentation