Error Bars in Excel

Error bars are frequently used in charts. They help you see data variation at a glance. Let’s learn how to add error bars in Microsoft Excel.

How to Add Error Bars in Microsoft Excel

In Excel, you can add error bars to a variety of chart types. Let’s consider a simple column chart. You have your data mapped out, but want to add error bars to it.

Get started by clicking on the chart to select it. Then, on Excel’s ribbon, click Chart Design and then find Add Chart Element. 

You’ll see a dropdown list with a variety of options, like Axes, AxisTitles, and more. Down the list, click on Error Bars, then on the arrow to the right.

Excel gives you several choices. You can add error bars to map out the Standard Error, Percentage, and Standard Deviation. To apply any of these error bars, click on the desired category.

You’ll see them appear on your chart. At a glance, you can visualize the variation and uncertainty found in your dataset.

How to Add Custom Error Bars in Microsoft Excel

Perhaps you might want custom error bars. To add these, click on More Error Bars Options. This launches the Format Error Bars dialogue box. Inside, you can apply stylistic effects. These are found under the Direction and End Style categories.

It’s also from here that you can dial in exact measurements with your error bars. Under Error Amount, you can specify the error to be tracked. For example, you can change the error bars to measure 2 standard deviations. Or, you can create an entirely unique value in the Custom field.

However you decide to format your error bars, Microsoft Excel makes it easy. You can build sharp statistical graphs with error bars in just a few clicks.