Column Graphs with Error Bars in Excel

1) Create a mini-table in Excel of the means and standard deviations for each group

 =Average(highlight data)  and  =STDEV((highlight data).

2)  To begin graphing,  highlight the first 2 rows of your summary table that contain the column titles and the means.  (Do NOT highlight the SD row; we will add the SD as error bars in Steps 5-7.) 

3)   Next, click on the “Insert” tab to the right of the “Home” tab on the upper menu.  Then click on the column graph button, selecting “Clustered Column”.

4)    Your graph should automatically appear. 

5)  Now  you need to add your SD values as error bars corresponding to their respective means.  

Double-click on your graph to open the Chart Design tab on the toolbar. Within the Chart Design tab, click on the “Add Chart Element” button on the left-hand side and drop down to “Error Bars” and select “More Error Bars Options….”

6) This will open up the “Format Error Bars” window to the right.  Select “Both” for Direction, “Cap” for End Style, and choose “Custom” to use your Standard Deviation values as your measure of error.  Click on the “Specify Value” button.

7)    The Custom Error Bars window will open.  You will need to enter the same range of SD values in both the positive and negative error value entries.  Select the entry cell, then go back to your spreadsheet, and click and drag to highlight your range of SD values in order.  As you can see, the values in cell I4 through K4 have been selected, which corresponds to the correct range of SD values in our spreadsheet.  Click “OK” to display your error bars on the graph.

8)   Now you need to edit the graph: 

a.  Axis Labels: Double-click on your graph to get back to the “Chart Design” tab.  Go to the “Add Chart Element” icon on the left and drop down to “Axis Titles”.  This will allow you to label your axes.

b. Remove Automatic Graph Title: Click on the automatic title that was generated on your graph. Press 'delete' on your keyboard. (You don't want this title because you will write a figure caption in your Word document that contains a more informative title).

c. Remove Gridlines: Click on the automatic gridlines that were generated on your graph. Press 'delete' on your keyboard. 

9) Once you are happy with the graph, click on the border to highlight it, then copy and paste into Word where you’ll finish it off with an appropriate caption.