Stacked line charts

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A stacked line chart will distort your trends because they are trending to the sum of all the values below, not the value for that line.

As I stated in my comments, this is one way around it. I don't claim it is the only or best way, but stacked lines are not a solution.

Regular Line chart

In this, I took your data and created a regular line chart. I changed the vertical axis to have min of 8% and max of 24%. I also made it a little taller proportionally, which you often need to do to get the kind of separation for similar values. Additionally I played with the data labels, some right, some top, and some bottom. You can also select individual data label boxes and move them around to help with clarity.

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user939482
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user939482

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • user939482
    user939482 about 1 year

    I need to create a trend line where the series all have similar values so in order to show the actual trends, I would like to separate the lines, similar to the image below. The chart below is using what PowerPoint calls a stacked line chart.

    Powerpoint stacked line chart

    The problem is that while the value labels populate correctly, the direction of the line may trend in the opposite direction. (See the gold line from wave 5 to 6 - the line should be going up).

    • Rey Juna
      Rey Juna about 5 years
      I don't think it is the type of chart that's the issue. When you format your data labels, did you set the Label Contains to Value?
    • user939482
      user939482 about 5 years
      Yes, that is how it's set. It's being referred to as a 'stacked line chart' where the lines don't overlap because they are cumulative at each point. I don't need them to be cumulative but I do need them to be separated. A standard line chart would make it difficult to see each series/group and their labels because all of the values are very similar.
    • Rey Juna
      Rey Juna about 5 years
      That's the issue. Sorry that I missed that. When you use stacked line charts, the individual lines are showing the trend of the sum of all the values below it. Recommend that you use a regular line chart and then format the vertical axis to have, as an example, a minimum of 5% and maximum of 25% to give you some separation. Play with those values to get the look you want.
    • user939482
      user939482 about 5 years
      I clarified my original post so you didn't miss anything :) The issue with a regular line chart is that the values are so similar and there are 4 lines so there's overlap and it makes it difficult to read. I was hoping there was a solution similar to the stacked line chart that allowed for the separation of the lines. [see regular line chart][1] [1]: i.stack.imgur.com/Bbyi1.png
    • Rajesh Sinha
      Rajesh Sinha about 5 years
      @user939482, I've successfully reproduced the Graph and not found any such problem as you have said, "gold line from wave 5 to 6 - the line should be going up". What I did I've tried both Line with marker & Stacked line with Markers. ☺