How to create a bar chart overlaying another bar chart in Excel?

When we create a clustered bar or column chart with two data series, the two data series bars will be shown side by side. But, sometimes, we need to use the overlay or overlapped bar chart to compare the two data series more clearly. In this article, I will talk about how to create an overlapped bar chart in Excel.

Create a bar chart overlaying another bar chart in Excel

Create a bar chart overlaying another bar chart in Excel

Please do the following steps to achieve this task.

1. Select the data range that you want to create an overlapped chart, and then click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Clustered Chart, see screenshot:

2. After creating the clustered chart, right-click one series bar, and then choose Change Series Chart Type from the context menu, see screenshot:

3. In the Change Chart Type dialog box, click Combo in the left pane under the All Charts tab, and then click Custom Combination chart in the right section, and check one checkbox in the Secondary Axis list, see screenshot:

4. Then click OK to close the dialog box, go on selecting the data series bar, and right click, choose Format Data Series… from the context menu, see screenshot:

5. In the popping up Format Data Series pane, click Series Options button, adjust the Gap Width to make the bar wider or narrower as your need, see screenshot:

6. Then click Fill & Line button, click Fill to expand it, in the Fill section, select Solid fill option, and then select the same color with another data series, at the same time, increase the transparency, you will get the following overlapping bar chart: