How to Create Dynamic Target Line in Excel Chart (Noob vs Pro Trick)

Transform your Excel charts with this simple guide on adding dynamic target lines. Perfect for enhancing presentations and data analysis!

🔍 What You'll Learn:
▪️ Easy Steps to Add a Target Line: Discover a straightforward method to include a target line in column charts.
▪️ Making Your Target Line Dynamic: Learn how to automate your target line adjustments with every data update.
▪️ Bar Chart Hack: Find out how to apply these techniques to bar charts for a professional and sleek look.

🛠️ Key Features Explored:
▪️ Using Excel tables for automatic updates.
▪️ Adjusting chart types and styles for better visualization.
▪️ Customizing data labels and chart orientations for clarity.

A target line or average line is a powerful visual that allows you to compare how actual data compares to their goal or budget. Visualizing such a target line in a dynamic way in a Microsoft Excel chart is not that simple. Specially adding a target line to a bar chart. In this video I'll show you a super easy way to create such dynamic target lines for both a column chart and a bar chart.

00:00 How to Add a Target Line to an Excel Chart
00:15 How NOT To Do It
01:02 Add Target Line to Column Chart in Excel
04:55 Add Target Line to Bar Chart in Excel

🎬 LINKS to related videos:

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#Excel

[whosmikeysea]

As someone who is typically in the role of the Excel "pro" on my team, I can say these scenarios do happen.

Thanks for the laughs and informative videos, Leila.

[happy_hami]

"You picked the wrong thing to be good at".

Whoa....that line just shook my brain! Kind of reformatted the way I think about things!

Lovely video as always! Great information and very easy to understand.

[GarthShaner]

Love the creativity in creating the bar chart! That’s a great use of Excel out-of-the-box without having to find or purchase charting plug-ins! Leila saving us time and money!

[vijayarjunwadkar]

This Noob & Pro pair is hilarious! 😂 and sure to be a 'hit'! Turning the column into bar chart hack is cool Leila! Never imagined that, so thank you for sharing! 👍

[mahmoudseif]

What a great idea of making a link picture, really i love it

[georgemensah]

Whoa! I've been doing this manually for years on the vertical line piece. Paste as linked picture. You're such a genius!

[Pauline_May]

You are the first channel i go to for Excel advice! Another excellent video, thank you.

[williamarthur]

that was a lot of fun, loved the idea of copying the column and turning it round.

[GaragePrimo]

Loved this video Leila. The conflict of having to get something done quickly helps raise the stakes of the video!

[ivanmamchych]

Thanks for the video.
It's very rare when a boss has sufficient Excel advanced skills and also has got enough time and patience for explaining 🙂 The lesson is nice and funny

[cinemaxD]

You are a Magician. Today I found your channel and am already blown away. Currently watching the Noob vs Pro playlist. Crazy Good!!

[jonminer]

Hi, Leila. You are so lucky to have a helper who doesn't know exactly what you want to teach us. She must be psychogenic or something! Thanks for sharing! Stay Healthy!

[brianbaheramouzegarletsbui]

Great job, Leila, as always. Not only educational, but funny as well.

[VeretenoVids]

OK, the first bit I've been doing for years, but the dynamic picture made my head explode. Whoa. (And I've seen plenty of charts with the target line just drawn in. This happened so many times that I added it to the team's Excel training mini challenges.)

[ericmoz]

This is super easy if you use table, Great tip!

I do want to add something since you have videos on dynamic charts using filter function... If you need it to be within a filter query, you can use HSTACK to combine your filter array with your static "Target" number in the last column (which can also reference a cell you update). That way the chart stays dynamic as all the data is within the same array.

I've been fiddling around with dynamic charts that can switch between different measures, products, varying number of columns based on a user selection. It can get pretty complex! I'd love to see a video on tips to help avoid "breaking" the dynamic chart when a formula error occurs by using an IFERROR array to keep the array the chart references intact so to speak.

[techronology_real]

For the column chart, you could also do a trendline for the target column bars, and hide the columns. This way, you can stretch the trendline through the entire plot area. And, the trendline method works on a bar chart too. I was impressed with the fake bar chart method though.

[lisaamante]

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA: Leila's so friggin' awesome! I have 4 graphs I'm working on right now and will use both these features! THANK YOU!!!

[joshuaackah]

With you, I can never finish learning. Thank you so much!

[MichaelGoldner]

Paste as linked picture: great trick I didn't know yet. Thank you Leila!

[leomason]

Love your videos! I have become the go-to person at work in all things Excel thanks to you.