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How to add arrows to line / column chart in Excel?

Author: Xiaoyang Last Modified: 2024-07-30

If there is column chart or line chart in your worksheet, sometimes, you need to add the arrows to the column chart to indicate the relationship of increasing and decreasing. Actually, there isn’t a direct way to add the arrows to the column bar, but you can draw the arrow shapes and copy them to the column chart. Today, I will talk about how to add arrows to the line or column chart.

Add arrows to column chart in Excel

Add arrows to line chart in Excel


arrow blue right bubble Add arrows to column chart in Excel

Supposing I have a range data and a column chart based on it as follow, and now I want to add some down arrows and up arrows based on the data.

doc-add-arrows-to-chart1

You can convert these data columns to arrows as following steps:

1. Insert an arrow shape to a blank section of this worksheet by clicking Insert > Shapes, and choosing Up Arrow or Down Arrow from the Block Arrows section as you need.

doc-add-arrows-to-chart2

2. Then drag the mouse to draw the arrows as you want, and you can format the arrows' styles as you need. See screenshot:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart3

3. Select one of the arrows that you want to use and press Ctrl +C to copy it, and then click a column in the chart and all the columns will be selected.

4. Then press Ctrl +V to paste the arrow to the chart, you will get the following result:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart4

5. After finishing this, you can delete the arrow shapes as you like.

Note: If you want to add up arrow and down arrow as your need, you just need to select only one column, and paste your specified arrow repeatedly. And you will get this:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart5


arrow blue right bubble Add arrows to line chart in Excel

In a line chart, you can alsoadd the arrows to indicate the data trends, please do as these:

1. In your created line chart, select the data line and right click, then choose Format Data Series from the context menu, see screenshot:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart6

2. In the Format Data Series dialog, click Line Style from the left pane, and then specify the Arrow Settings, you can select the arrow type and size as you need. See screenshot:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart7

3. Then close this dialog, and the arrows have been added to the line chart, see screenshot:

doc-add-arrows-to-chart8


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