Shade the Area Between Two Lines - Excel Line Chart

In this video, we shade the area between two lines of a line chart to visualise the difference clearer.

There are many reasons to colour this area between the two lines. In this example, we use it to plot actual values against planned values.

We then tidy up the chart by replacing the Legend with an alternative way of differentiating the two lines.

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[cycleSCUBA]

Excellent!! I wanted a shaded area within which my lines/values are within budget and this has made my chart look so much more professional. Thank you! 10/10

[nmarks]

Mate, seriously, one of the most useful videos on YT. 10/10 Thanks for uploading.

[wayneedmondson]

Hi Alan.. great tip! So clever to use a combo chart with a stacked area to lift the backfill where you want it and then use no fill for the base area.. great stuff! I also like the touch of adding the data labels to one data point on each series using just the series name instead of a legend. These are the kinds of tricks that elude me when I'm in a hurry to get something done. Glad to learn them here for my next project requirement with a short deadline. Thanks for sharing. Always something new, interesting and fun at Computergaga! Thumbs up!!

[excelworx]

Hi Alan. How do you give the shading a different color if the planned value is below the actual value

[kedmond]

This was extremely helpful, clear, and concise. Thank you.

[ekkehardwurm]

Thanks for sharing this video! Is it possible to do the same if the numbers are negative? I have a list of upper and lower bounds NPS numbers and all are negative. Thank you!

[HonzaKuranda]

Thank you, much appreciated, saved some time figuring out how to do it

[dannybeck]

Very helpful, sincerely appreciate the tutorial

[richardgordon]

Brilliant! Exactly what I needed to know.

[hado-hado]

Thank you a lot. I want to create a chart showing the profit/loss between sales and costs. It that great to figure out your video.

[ayseunal]

Thank you so much for sharing this video, so easy to follow and so useful!

[rosatiimumadomingos]

Thank you so, so much! This video saved me a lot of time.

[pipo]

Alan always shows up with some interesting details. Thank you.

[alanmonaghan]

I've never used the shading option before. Great stuff Alan.

[tubbs_chubbs]

wow this is such a clever solution! Thanks so much, I never would have got there

[debasishnath]

The area chart option does not work for a data series having both + and - numbers in it. The negative region does not shows up. Hiw to fix this problem?
Please reply

[elizabethmartin]

How can I apply this to a radar chart? Thank you!

[thecorbies]

Hi. How funny (or is it?), that you should show this tip tonight. Earlier on the Coronavirus update briefing, it was announced that some of the charts had been altered to make it easier to see 'at a glance' the pertinent info'. I noticed that the tip you showed was one of those alterations.
Do you know something, or somebody we don't??? haha.
Thanks for sharing this - I like it.
Regards Mark in the UK

[KellynLiberty]

Hi! Amazing tutorial. Is there anyway to do this in google sheets? Thanks!

[SpaghettiToaster]

Hey, any idea how to do this with lines on a scatterplot, i.e. lines that change value at different x coordinates?