How to reverse the order of items in an Excel chart legend?

If you want to reverse the display order of legend items in a stacked bar chart directly in Excel, you can do this by managing the data series’ arrangement. Changing legend order is helpful for customizing the visualization to match reporting priorities or for consistency with other business documents. Here’s how you can manually rearrange legend items from top to bottom:

1. Right-click anywhere on the chart and select Select Data from the context menu. This opens the Select Data Source dialog box, where all your chart series are listed.

2. In the dialog box, focus on the Legend Entries (Series) section. Click to highlight your first legend item—for example, Jan—and then use the Move Down button to send it to the bottom of the series list.

3. Repeat the process as needed: move each remaining series down until the original last series appears at the top of the list. When series are reordered here, their legend positions update instantly. When finished, click OK to confirm and close the dialog box.

Upon returning to your worksheet, you will see that the chart legend now displays the items in reverse order.

Tips:

• If your chart contains many series, keep track of series labels to avoid confusion during reordering. Consider writing down the initial order before making changes.
• Manually rearranging requires careful attention if you later add or remove series. Check the legend order after any changes to make sure it remains as intended.
• If the chart is linked to a dynamic range or is regularly updated, you may need to repeat this process after updating the source data.

Troubleshooting:

• If the Move Up/Move Down buttons are unavailable or greyed out, try clicking directly on the series name in the list before using the buttons.
• If changes don't appear in the chart, try closing and reopening the file or pressing F9 to refresh.

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