If someone asked you to sketch what a line or bar chart looked like, I bet you would start with a vertical axis on the left. And a horizontal axis at the bottom. That’s what we see most often, and it’s the default when you insert a new chart. 

But it’s not always the most appropriate or helpful position. Sometimes it is more useful to move the axes. It comes down to the context of your data. And the point that your chart is trying to land.

Moving the axis to the right

For example, the chart below shows how app subscribers have changed over time. It splits them into three categories: paying subscribers, those on the free plan, and dormant users: people who have created an account, but have not used the app for three months or longer.

Let’s imagine this chart is to support a conversation about continuing to grow user numbers, and converting more free users to paid subscribers. It would be safe to assume that while the historical numbers are interesting, the data that will drive the decisions made today are the recent user numbers.

And so, to be best able to gauge what those figures are, it will be easier if we move the vertical axis to the right, so it is next to the more interesting data points. Like this:

It’s a simple change, but it makes a big difference to the ease and speed of interpreting the chart.

Moving the axis to the top

Similarly, if you are using a horizontal bar chart or compare items, I often recommend sorting by size with the largest at the top. If that is the case, it is easier to put the horizontal axis at the top to help set the scale before looking at the comparative sizes.

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How to move the axis in PowerPoint & Excel

Moving an axis is easy. But finding the right setting is tricky, because it’s somewhat counterintuitive. You move the axis by telling the other axis where it should cross.

So to move the vertical axis, format the horizontal one. And vice versa. Logically, in fact, it has to work that way, but it does feel a bit odd. And frsutrating when you can't find the option.

Here are the steps. They are the same whether you are working on an embedded chart directly in PowerPoint, or inside an Excel workbook.

1. Double-click on the other axis to the one you want to move.
2. The format pane will open on the right of the screen, as shown here.
3. If the chart options aren’t showing, click the little bar chart icon near the top, indicated by the arrow on the image here.
4. In the top section, Axis Options, find the section option: Vertical axis crosses. (If you have selected the vertical axis because you want to move the horizontal one, this will say Horizontal axis crosses.)
5. There will be three options here, showing one of two sets of choices. To move the axis to the other end, select Maximum category or Maximum axis value.*

You’ll notice there’s a middle option: At category number or At axis value. These allow you to place the axis any any other point in-between. Occasionally that is useful, but often it makes the axis hard to read; it can get buried in the middle of the chart. So use with caution.

* Whether the options say ‘category’ or ‘value’ is down to what the axis represents. If it is a number that is being used to determine the length of a bar or where a line is plotted, it will say ‘value’. Otherwise, the axis is simply treating the cells as labels for each interval in the axis, and this means it is a ‘category’. Either way, just select ‘maximum’. 

Bonus tip

If the recent numbers are important, consider adding data labels just for those points. In the example below we’ve added the most recent set of data, and also the data for 12 months previously, to enable quick comparison.

To add a label to selected items rather than the whole series, the trick is to click twice:

1. Click once on the data series. This will select all the data points in that series.
2. Click once more to select a single data point. (Be careful not to do this second click too quickly after the first; you are not trying to double-click)
3. Either click the green plus sign top right of the chart, or the Add Chart Element button on the Chart Design tab, find Data Labels and then choose the position you want.
4. Repeat for all the individual data labels you want to show.
5. Format appropriately. You can use format painter on data labels, which saves time.