How to make horizontal line in excel

Click anywhere on the spreadsheet and drag your mouse pointer up or down to draw a vertical line. Drag your mouse pointer left or right to draw a horizontal line.

Can you add a horizontal line in Excel graph?

Right click on the added series, and choose Change Series Chart Type from the pop-up menu. In the Change Chart Type dialog, select the XY Scatter With Straight Lines And Markers chart type.And now everything lines up as expected: the markers on the horizontal lines are at the edges of the plot area.

How do I insert a line in Excel spreadsheet?

To start a new line of text or add spacing between lines or paragraphs of text in a worksheet cell, press Alt+Enter to insert a line break. Double-click the cell in which you want to insert a line break (or select the cell and then press F2). Click the location inside the selected cell where you want to break the line.

In the Select Data Source dialog box, click the Add button and in the Edit Series dialog box, type: In the Series name box – the name of this line (Goal), In the Series values box – the cell with the goal ($C$17):

How do you add a horizontal line in Excel 2010?

Here’s how:

1. Double-click the line.
2. On the Format Data Series pane, go Fill & Line > Line, open the Dash type drop-down box and select the desired type.

How do I add a line between rows in Excel?

Open a Spreadsheet

1. Open a Spreadsheet.
2. Launch Excel.
3. Highlight Desired Cell.
4. Position the cursor in a single cell you want to have grid lines.
5. Click “Borders” Menu.
6. Click the “Home” tab if it’s not enabled.
7. Click “All Borders”
8. Click the “All Borders” button to display grid lines on the single cell.

How do you insert a horizontal?

Insert a Horizontal Line From the Ribbon

1. Place your cursor where you want to insert the line.
2. Go to the Home tab and then click the dropdown arrow for the Borders option in the Paragraph group.
3. Select Horizontal Line from the menu.
4. To tweak the look of this horizontal line, double-click the line.

How do I add a straight vertical line in Excel?

Insert vertical line in Excel graph

1. On the All Charts tab, select Combo.
2. For the main data series, choose the Line chart type.
3. For the Vertical Line data series, pick Scatter with Straight Lines and select the Secondary Axis checkbox next to it.
4. Click OK.

How do I add a second Y axis in Excel?

Add or remove a secondary axis in a chart in Excel

1. Select a chart to open Chart Tools.
2. Select Design > Change Chart Type.
3. Select Combo > Cluster Column – Line on Secondary Axis.
4. Select Secondary Axis for the data series you want to show.
5. Select the drop-down arrow and choose Line.
6. Select OK.

How do I add a line to a bar chart?

Select the specified bar you need to display as a line in the chart, and then click Design > Change Chart Type. See screenshot: 3. In the Change Chart Type dialog box, please select Clustered Column – Line in the Combo section under All Charts tab, and then click the OK button.

How do I add a line between columns in Excel?

Insert a line between columns on a page

1. Choose Page Layout > Columns. At the bottom of the list, choose More Columns.
2. In the Columns dialog box, select the check box next to Line between.

How do I insert a horizontal line in Word 2021?

How to Insert a Horizontal Line in Word

1. Place the cursor where you want to insert a line.
2. Go to the Home tab.
3. In the Paragraph group, select the Borders drop-down arrow and choose Horizontal Line.
4. To change the look of the line, double-click the line in the document.

How do I make a horizontal line in Word?

Microsoft Word

1. Put your cursor in the document where you want to insert the horizontal line.
2. Go to Format | Borders And Shading.
3. On the Borders tab, click the Horizontal Line button.
4. Scroll through the options and select the desired line.
5. Click OK.

How do I make vertical text in Excel?

Summary – How to make text vertical in Excel

1. Select the cell (or cells) that you wish to make vertical.
2. Click the Home tab at the top of the window.
3. Choose the Orientation button in the Alignment section of the ribbon.
4. Select the Vertical Text option.

How do I add a horizontal line to a scatter plot in Excel?

Put your min and max X in two cells, for example E2 and E3, and put the desired Y value for the line in both F2 and F3. Right click on the chart, choose Select Data from the pop up menu. Choose Add above the list of series, then select the added series and choose Edit.

How do I change the horizontal axis in Excel?

Change the scale of the horizontal (category) axis in a chart

1. Interval between tick marks and labels.
2. Placement of labels.
3. Order in which categories are displayed.
4. Axis type (date or text axis)
5. Placement of tick marks.
6. Point where the horizontal axis crosses the vertical axis.

Why can’t I add a secondary axis in Excel?

If your chart has two or more data series, only then you will have the option to select one of the data series and use Format Data Series to plot the selected data series on a Secondary axis. If your chart has only one data series, the secondary axis option is disabled.

Can a bar graph be horizontal?

Bar charts can be displayed with vertical columns, horizontal bars, comparative bars (multiple bars to show a comparison between values), or stacked bars (bars containing multiple types of information). Bar graphs are commonly used in financial analysis for displaying data.

How do I add a baseline to an Excel chart?

How to create a chart with a baseline?

1. Consider the data and plot the chart from it.
2. Enter the value of baseline in first row and drag it downward as shown below.
3. Select chart window, under design option choose Select Data option.
4. A window will appear like shown below.
5. On selecting Add option a small window will appear.

A common task is to add a horizontal line to an Excel chart. The horizontal line may reference some target value or limit, and adding the horizontal line makes it easy to see where values are above and below this reference value. Seems easy enough, but often the result is less than ideal. This tutorial shows how to add horizontal lines to several common types of Excel chart.

We won’t even talk about trying to draw lines using the items on the Shapes menu. Since they are drawn freehand (or free-mouse), they aren’t positioned accurately. Since they are independent of the chart’s data, they may not move when the data changes. And sometimes they just seem to move whenever they feel like it.

The examples below show how to make combination charts, where an XY-Scatter-type series is added as a horizontal line to another type of chart.

An XY Scatter chart is the easiest case. Here is a simple XY chart.

Let’s say we want a horizontal line at Y = 2.5. It should span the chart, starting at X = 0 and ending at X = 6.

This is easy, a line simply connects two points, right?

We set up a dummy range with our initial and final X and Y values (below, to the left of the top chart), copy the range, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data to the chart (see below for details on Paste Special).

When the data is first added, the autoscaled X axis changes its maximum from 6 to 8, so the line doesn’t span the entire chart. We have to format the axis and type 6 into the box for Maximum. We probably also want to remove the markers from our horizontal line.

Paste Special

If you don’t use Paste Special often, it might be hard to find. If you copy a range and use the right click menu on a chart, the only option is a regular Paste, and Excel doesn’t always correctly guess how it should paste the data. So I always use Paste Special.

To find Paste Special, click on the down arrow on the Paste button on the Home tab of Excel’s ribbon. Paste Special is at the bottom of the pop-up menu.

You can also use the Excel 97-2003 menu-based shortcut, which is Alt + E + S (for Edit menu > Paste Special).

The tooltip below Paste Special in the menu indicates that you could also use Ctrl + Alt + V, but this shortcut doesn’t do anything for charts.

When the Paste Special dialog appears, make sure you select these options: Add Cells as a New Series, Y Values in Columns, Series Names in First Row, Categories (X Values) in First Column.

Click OK and the new series will appear in the chart.

Add a Horizontal Line to a Column or Line Chart

When you add a horizontal line to a chart that is not an XY Scatter chart type, it gets a bit more complicated. Partly it’s complicated because we will be making a combination chart, with columns, lines, or areas for our data along with an XY Scatter type series for the horizontal line. Partly it’s complicated because the category (X) axis of most Excel charts is not a value axis.

As with the XY Scatter chart in the first example, we need to figure out what to use for X and Y values for the line we’re going to add. The Y values are easy, but the X values require a little understanding of how Excel’s category axes work. Since the category axes of column and line charts work the same way, let’s do them together, starting with the following simple column and line charts.

Note in the charts above that the first and last category labels aren’t positioned at the corners of the plot area, but are moved inwards slightly. This is because column and line charts use a default setting of Between Tick Marks for the Axis Position property. We can change the Axis Position to On Tick Marks, below, and the first and last category labels line up with the ends of the category axis. The line chart looks okay, but we have cut off the outer halves of the first and last columns.

Let’s focus on a column chart (the line chart works identically), and use category labels of 1 through 5 instead of A through E. Excel doesn’t recognize these categories as numerical values, but we can think of them as labeling the categories with numbers.

Now let’s label the points between the categories. Not only do we have halfway points between the categories, we also have a half category label below the first category and another after the last category.

If the Axis Position property were set to On Tick Marks, our horizontal line starts at 1 (the first category number of 1) and ends at 5 (the last category number of 5). This would be wrong for a column chart, but might be acceptable for a line chart.

Here is our desired horizontal line, stretching from 0.5 to 5.5

So let’s use this data and the same approach that we used for the scatter chart, at the beginning of this tutorial.

Copy the range, and paste special as new series. We’ve added another set of columns or another line to the chart.

Right click on the added series, and choose Change Series Chart Type from the pop-up menu.

In the Change Chart Type dialog, select the XY Scatter With Straight Lines And Markers chart type. We’re using markers to temporarily mark the ends of the line, and we’ll remove the markers later; in general we will change directly to XY Scatter With Straight Lines.

The new series don’t line up at all, though, because Excel decided we should plot the scatter series on the secondary axes. We could rescale the secondary axes, then hide them, but that makes a complicated situation even more complicated.

So we need to uncheck the Secondary Axis box next to the Scatter series in the Change Chart Type dialog.

And now everything lines up as expected: the markers on the horizontal lines are at the edges of the plot area.

We should remove those markers now, and in the future select the chart type without markers.

“Lazy” Horizontal Line

You may ask why not make a combination column-line chart, since column charts and line charts use the same axis type. And many charts with horizontal lines use exactly this approach. I call it the “lazy” approach, because it’s easier, but it provides a line that doesn’t extend beyond all the data to the sides of the chart.

Start with your chart data, and add a column of values for the horizontal line. You get a column chart with a second set of columns, or a line chart with a second line.

Change the chart type of the added series to a line chart without markers.  Doesn’t look very good for the column chart (left) since the horizontal line ends at the centerlines of the first and last column. You could probably get away with it for the line chart, even though the horizontal line doesn’t extend to the sides of the chart.

If we change the Axis Position so the vertical axis crosses On Tick Marks, the horizontal lines for both charts span the entire chart width. In the column chart, this comes at the expense of the outer halves of the first and last columns. The line chart looks okay, though.

Add a Horizontal Line to an Area Chart

As with the previous examples, we need to figure out what to use for X and Y values for the line we’re going to add. The category axis of an area chart works the same as the category axis of a column or line chart, but the default settings are different. Let’s start with the following simple area chart.

Notice that the first and last category labels are aligned with the corners of the plot area and the filled area series extends to the sides of the plot area. This is because the default setting of the Axis Position property is On Tick Marks. We can change it to Between Tick Marks, which makes the area chart look a bit strange.

Below is the data for our horizontal line, which will start at 1 (the first category number of 1) and end at 5 (the last category number of 5), without the half-category cushion at either end. Copy the data, select the chart, and Paste Special to add the data as a new series.

Right click on the added series, and change its chart type to XY Scatter With Straight Lines And Markers (again, the markers are temporary). The resulting line extends to the edges of the plotted area, but Excel changed the Axis Position to Between Tick Marks.

Change the Axis Position setting back to On Tick Marks, and remove the markers from the line.

“Lazy” Horizontal Line

In the column chart, and perhaps for the line chart, the “lazy” approach did not give a suitable horizontal line, since the line did not extend to the edges of the plot area. Let’s see how it works for an area chart.

Make a chart with the actual data and the horizontal line data.

Right click on the second series, and change its chart type to a line. Excel changed the Axis Position property to Between Tick Marks, like it did when we changed the added series above to XY Scatter.

Change the Axis Position back to On Tick Marks, and the chart is finished.

For the area chart, the appearance of the lazy horizontal line is identical to the more complicated line that uses an XY Scatter series. Since it’s easier and just as good, it’s probably better to use the lazy approach.

Follow-Up

An alert reader noted in the comments that the line produced by this method is placed in front of the bars, and it might be better to place such reference lines behind the data. I have written a new post describing an approach that does just this: Horizontal Line Behind Columns in an Excel Chart.

Historical

I showed similar approaches in an old post, Add a Target Line.

More Combination Chart Articles on the Peltier Tech Blog

• Clustered Column and Line Combination Chart
• Precision Positioning of XY Data Points
• Horizontal Line Behind Columns in an Excel Chart
• Bar-Line (XY) Combination Chart in Excel
• Salary Chart: Plot Markers on Floating Bars
• Fill Under or Between Series in an Excel XY Chart
• Fill Under a Plotted Line: The Standard Normal Curve
• Excel Chart With Colored Quadrant Background

Excel bar graphs or charts are a great way to graphically represent mathematical data. On top of that, sometimes, the values included in the charts are required to be compared with a target or a base value. Have you ever wondered if there is a way to graphically represent this target value? Well, in this article we will discuss how we can use a horizontal target/benchmark or baseline in an excel chart but first, let us look at the problem statement. 

Need for a horizontal benchmark in an Excel chart 

Let us first create a table with items and sales as attributes. This is shown below:

Now follow the below steps to convert this table into a bar graph. 

Step 1: Select the cells from A1 to B5. Then click on the Insert tab at the top of the ribbon and then select the column in the Illustration group.

Step 2: From the column drop-down, just click on any chart option you want, and that chart will be automatically displayed. Here, we have taken the stacked column chart option. 

Now, let us say that we had the target to reach 30,000 sales for each of the items. How can we compare this visually with the current sales in this graph? Well, to do that, we can make a line at 30, 000, horizontal to the x-axis. Here is how it will look:

But how to add this horizontal benchmark to the graph? 

Read further to know the different ways of doing the same. 

Method 1 – Use the paste special method to add a horizontal benchmark in the Excel chart 

Note that we will use the same table and the corresponding chart as above to demonstrate this example. 

Step 1: First (after creating the sales table and its bar chart), create a benchmark table on the same spreadsheet as shown below:

The values 1 and 4 refer to the number of records in the sales table and 30000 represents the benchmark value. 

Step 2: Now, select the benchmark table and press Ctrl + C alongside.  After this, click on the sales chart to activate it and go to the paste special option under the paste dropdown on the home tab. A dialog box will appear like this:

Step 3: In this dialog box, check the following options if not checked already: new series, columns, series names in the first row, and categories (x labels) in the first column, and click on ok. 

The spreadsheet will look like this once you click ok. 

Here, the benchmark data is also added to the activated chart. 

Step 4: In this chart, right-click on the benchmark chart section (in red color) and select the change series chart type option. You will see a dialog box like this:

Step 5: In this dialog box, go to the X Y (Scatter) option and choose the scatter with straight lines option. 

Step 6: Click ok. You will see a horizontal benchmark like this:

Step 7: Right-click this horizontal benchmark and go to the format data series option. Then select the primary axis option as shown below:

Step 8: Close this dialog box, you can see how the horizontal benchmark appears now:

Note that you can use this method for other graphs like line graphs and area graphs as well. That was one method, now let us discuss the other method to achieve this.  

Method 2 – Add new data to add a horizontal benchmark in Excel chart

In the above method, we made a separate table for the benchmark. But this time, we will make another column for the benchmark values. 

Step 1: Add a new column to the sales table with benchmark value 30000 as shown below:

Step 2: Right-click the sales chart and choose the select data option. A dialog box will appear.

Step 3: In this dialog box, click the add button under the legend entries section. 

Step 4: You will see another pop-up. In this pop-up, write Benchmark under the series name and give the benchmark column values in the series values. Remember to exclude the column header while you do that. Then, click ok. 

Step 5: You can see that the benchmark chart is added to the sales chart. 

Now repeat steps 4 and 5 of Method 1. You will see the benchmark line as follows:

To add a horizontal line to your chart, do the following:

   1.   Add the cell or cells with the goal or limit (limits)
to your data, for example:

   2.   Add a new data series to your chart by doing one of
the following:

• Under Chart Tools, on the Design tab, in the Data group, choose Select Data:

  

• Right-click in the chart area and choose Select Data… in the popup menu:

  

In the Select Data Source dialog box, click the Add button and in the Edit Series
dialog box, type:

• In the Series name box — the name of this line (Goal),
• In the Series values box — the cell with the goal ($C$17):

   3.   If it is necessary, change data series:

   3.1.   Right-click in the new data series and choose
Change Series Chart Type… in the popup menu:

   3.2.   In the Change Chart Type dialog box, choose the
Scatter type:

   3.3.   Repeat step 2 to change the data series:

In the Select Data Source dialog box, select the added data series and click the Edit
button, then in the Edit Series dialog box:

• In the Series X values box — add any cell from the horizontal (category) axis (for example,
  $A$8):

You will see the correct data for the same horizontal (category) axis:

   4.   Under Chart Tools, on the Design tab, in the Chart Layouts group,
click the Add Chart Element icon and choose the Error Bars list:

Excel proposes several error bars; also, you can use More Error Bars Options…. If necessary, you
can fine-tune the error bar settings from the Format Error Bars pane:

To specify the length of the error line, click on the Specify Value button, and type the
appropriate value for negative and positive values. For this example:

You can then make any other adjustments to get the expected look.

See also this tip in French:
Comment ajouter une ligne horizontale au graphique.

Excel is not only a wonderful tool for data entry and data analysis, but also great at making charts, flow charts, simple diagrams, etc.

It’s quite simple in Excel to insert a line and then customize and position it. In fact, you’ll be surprised how many options you get when you need to draw a line in Excel.

You can easily draw a line to connect two boxes (to show the flow) or add a line in an Excel chart to highlight some specific data point or the trend.

Excel also allows you to use your cursor or touch screen option to manually draw a line or create other shapes.

How to Insert a Line in Excel (Using Illustation)

To insert a line in the worksheet in Excel, you need to use the Shapes option. It inserts a line as a shape object that you can drag and place anywhere in the worksheet.

You can also easily customize it- such as change the size, thickness, color, add effects such as shadow, etc.

Below are the steps to insert a line shape in Excel:

1. Open the Excel workbook and activate the worksheet in which you want to draw/insert the line
2. Click the Insert tab

1. Click on Illustrations

1. Click on the Shapes icon

1. Choose from any of the existing 12 Line options
2. Go to the worksheet, click the left key on your mouse/trackpad and drag the cursor to insert a line of that length

The above steps would instantly insert the line that you selected in step 5.

These are the 12 line options that you have available in Excel:

1. Straight Line
2. Line Arrow (with arrow at one end of the line)
3. Line Arrow Double (arrow at both ends)
4. Connector: Elbow (use this to connect boxes, this is not a straight line)
5. Connector: Elbow arrow (arrow at one end)
6. Connector: Elbow double-arrow (arrow at both ends)
7. Connector: Curved
8. Connector: Curved Arrow
9. Connector: Curved Double-Arrow
10. Curve
11. Freeform: Shape
12. Freeform: Scribble

Adding Multiple Lines in One Go

When you use the above steps, you can only insert any of the line shapes once. If you need to insert it again (say you want to insert 3 lines), you will have to repeat the process two times again.

Instead, you can lock the drawing mode so you can keep inserting the lines in one go.

Below are the steps to lock the line drawing mode:

1. Open the Excel workbook and activate the worksheet in which you want to draw/insert the line
2. Click the Insert tab
3. Click on Illustrations
4. Click on the Shapes icon
5. Right-click on any of the line shapes that you want lock (i.e., the one that you want to insert multiple times)
6. Click on Lock Drawing Mode

1. Click anywhere in the worksheet

When you do the above steps, you will notice that your cursor changes and remains a plus icon. You can now click and drag and insert multiple lines in one go.

To unlock the line drawing mode, hit the Escape key.

Customizing Lines/Arrows in Excel

Apart from inserting different types of lines, you can also further customize the line shapes you insert.

When you click on any of the line shapes in the worksheet, you will see a new contextual tab appear in the ribbon – the Shape Format tab.

In this new tab, you get some additional options to format the lines.

Shape Styles Options

In the Shape Styles group, there are some inbuilt theme styles and preset styles you can use. To see all these options, you can click on the More icon.

Then you can select any of the existing styles and it will be applied to all the selected lines in the worksheet.

Apart from this, you can also change the line outline by clicking on the Shape Outline option.

In Shape Outline, you can change the following:

• Color of the line
• Weight of the line (thickness)
• Style of the line (solid, dot, dash, etc)
• Arrows

And finally, you can also add some Effects to the line, such as shadow, glow, or reflection. This can be done using the Shape Effect options.

To use these, select one or multiple lines to which you want to add the Effects and then use the options in Shape Effect.

Arranging the Lines

If you’re working with more than a few line shapes in Excel, you will find it useful to know about the ‘Arrange’ options.

You can find these in the Arrange group in the Shape Format tab (which only appears when you select any shape in the worksheet).

Following are the options that are available to you:

• Bring Forward / Send Backward – in case you want to rearrange the shapes
• Selection Pane – this opens a pane on the right where you can see all the shapes in the worksheet. You also have the option to hide some shapes from this pane
• Align – To align the lines left/center/right or top/middle/bottom. This comes in handy when working with multiple shapes where you want these shapes to be neatly aligned
• Rotate – to change the angle to the line
• Group – to group mutiple lines/shapes. For example, you can group lines and boxes using this so they will move/size together.

Note that most of the shape ‘Arrange options’ will become available only when you have more than one shape in the worksheet.

Example 1 – Adding a Line to Connect Boxes/Shapes

Now that I’ve covered the basics of how to insert and format line shapes in Excel, let me show you a couple of examples of how you can use this in real life.

A common example is when you have boxes in the worksheet and you want to connect these boxes using lines. These could be simple lines or lines with arrows that also show the flow

Below I have an example, where I have two boxes, and I want to draw lines between these to connect them.

Below are the steps to do this:

1. Click the Insert tab
2. Click on Illustrations
3. Click on Shapes
4. Click on the Line icon
5. In the worsheet, click on the right border of the first box and drag the cursor to the left border of the second box.

This will insert a line and you will get something as shown below.

You can also use different styles of the lines, such as with arrows or connectors.

Example 2 – Adding a Line in Excel Charts

Apart from connecting boxes and making flowcharts, arrows are also useful when you want to highlight specific data points in a chart in Excel.

Below is an example where I wanted to highlight one specific data point with some context, so I added some text in the chart and then used an arrow to point that text towards one specific data point.

You can format the line using the same colors used in the chart, or you can use a contrasting color to make it stand out.

How to Draw a Line in Excel (Using Cursor / Touch)

So far, I have covered how to insert a line shape in Excel that you can drag and drop anywhere in the worksheet and format the colors, thickness, etc.

But there is also an option to manually draw a line or shape in Excel.

The Draw option in Excel allows you to use your cursor (or a pen or touch if you have a touch screen) and draw on the screen.

You can use it to quickly draw some shapes and lines – such as a simple flow chart or an organization chart.

It won’t look as neat and clean as the shapes that you can insert, but in some cases, it could be faster and more useful – for example, if you are trying to show a process in excel on a call or in a presentation.

You can access these options in the Draw tab in the ribbon, where you can select the pen (with different colors and thickness) and use it for drawing lines or shapes.

You can change the pen color and size by clicking on the downward arrow that appears when you select any pen.

In case you don’t see the Draw option in the ribbon, right-click on any of the existing ribbon options and click on Customize the Ribbon. In the Excel Options dialog box that opens, check the Draw option (in the right pane) and click OK.

While using the Draw option is quite easy and self-explanatory, there is one useful feature that I want to highlight – Ink to Shape.

Using the Ink to Shape option, you can draw lines and shapes in the worksheet, and then use this option to convert these into neat-looking shapes (such as proper straight lines and boxes/squares/rectangles).

Below is an example of something I drew using my cursor.

And now below are the steps to convert these hand draw boxes and lines into proper shapes:

1. Click the Select Object option in the Draw tab
2. Select the shapes you want to convert
3. Click on the Ink to Shape option

Here is the result I got:

The above option will try its best to convert your free-form hand-drawn shapes into proper lines and boxes.

This feature is not perfect sometimes can’t understand the shapes. But it still works well and can save you a lot of time if you have a lot of these hand-drawn shapes that need to be converted.

In this tutorial, I covered how to draw a line in Excel using the insert shapes options and the draw options.

I hope you found this tutorial useful!

Other Excel tutorials you may also like:

• How to Split a Cell Diagonally in Excel (Insert Diagonal Line)
• How to Remove Dotted Lines in Excel (3 Easy Fix)
• How to Add a TrendLine in Excel Charts
• How to Insert and Use a Radio Button (Option Button) in Excel