Adding objects to Excel Charts

[e119687]

I have several charts that track process performance. With a trend line added it is easy to see how the process is changing over time.

Dependent on the individual process and goal, for some processes it is better if a data set trends downward and for other processes, it is better if the results trend upward.

I.e for delivery performance one would want the trend line to be increasing while for the number of defects one would want this to trend downward.

Displaying these many charts on a regular basis for team review, it can be challenging to understand (without verbal explanation) when a trend (either up or down) is going in the "direction of good".

I have in the past simply added an arrow shape and text box to the chart to provide a graphical representation of the direction of good. The problem with this is that those objects to not come across when I copy/paste the chart.

Is there a better known method to display the direction of good in Excel charts?

Thanks in advance for your consideration on this.

 

[Hui]

I think that you are putting the objects ontop of the chart not inside the chart

If you select a Chart
then goto Insert and select the object from Shapes the object will be inside the chart and will move with it

If you don't have the chart selected when you goto Insert, any object added will be ontop of the chart and will not move with the chart

If you select the Arrow shape and drag it sideways, if it moves off the chart it is ontop. If it can only move to the edge of the chart it is inside the chart.

 

[e119687]

Thank you so much. I had a feeling it was something simple but it never dawned on me to use the insert process.

 

[Oxidised]

I use to do that and use red or green shapes to colour in the background of the graph to indicate where was the "good" or "bad" areas of the chart to be in... fidely to get right, but the result is easy to understand