XL: Cannot Add Error Bars to Chart That Contains Many Series

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article, if you attempt to add error bars to a series in a chart, the following problems may occur:

• In the Error Bars tab in the Format Data Series dialog box, the Both, Plus, or Minus boxes are empty. When you click them, nothing happens.
• If you run a Visual Basic macro that attempts to add error bars to a series in the chart, you may receive the following error message:

        Run-time error '1004':
        ErrorBar method of Series class failed
  

CAUSE

These problems occur if the chart contains a combined total of 255 series and sets of error bars. Note that each set of error bars that you add to a chart acts as a series.

For example, if you create a chart that contains a single series, and you add both Plus and Minus error bars to the series, the chart acts as if it contains 3 series: one actual series, plus two sets of error bars.

RESOLUTION

There is no way to circumvent this limitation in Microsoft Excel. To add error bars to one series, you may need to remove error bars from another series, or remove another series from the chart completely.

STATUS

This behavior is by design of the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

To add error bars to a series in a chart, follow these steps:

1. Select the series.

2. On the Format menu, click Selected Data Series. Click the Y Error Bars (or X Error Bars) tab.

3. In the Display section, select the box for the type of error bars you want to insert: Both, Plus, Minus, or None. Use the controls in the Error Amount section to set parameters for the error bars.

4. When you are done, click OK.