error bars on bar chart in Excel 2007

[Millie]

I would like to assign a separate error bar value to each of the data sets
within my bar chart. When I use the customise error bars feature it allocates
the same error bar to all of the bars in the graph.

Each chart in the bar is a mean in itself, hence the requirement for
individual error bars.

I see from previous posts that this appeared to be possible in Excel 2003
but I don't have access to this version.

 

[Jon Peltier]

If each bar represents the average of a set of numbers, then you can
calculate the standard deviation (or other measure of dispersion) for this
set of numbers. Put these calculations in a convenient place in the
worksheet, then when defining the error bars, use the custom values, and
select this range of calculated errors.

I couldn't stand how stupid and convoluted the interface gymnastics were to
add error bars in Excel 2007, so I wrote myself a little utility to do them
more easily. I have made the utility compatible with Excel versions
2000-2007, and posted it on my site (it's free!):

http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/error-bars-in-excel-2007/

- Jon
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Jon Peltier, Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/>
Advanced Excel Conference - Training in Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009-06-ACNJ/AdvExcelConf200906ACNJ.html
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