Here is a very quick tip if you ever want to hide a cell’s contents in excel
Just use the custom cell formatting (more here) code ;;;
How? (see the screencast aside too)

1. Select the cell you want to hide
2. Hit CTRL+1 (or open format cells dialog from right click)
3. Go to Number tab, select “custom” as the type
4. Type the formatting code as “;;;” without double quotes
5. Press OK and your cell contents are invisible now
What is the use of doing this?
1. This might be handy when you are using conditional formatting to highlight / change cell colors
2. This might be handy when you need to calculate intermediate values, but dont want to display them. (But try to use Hide rows / hide columns feature if you can)
Remember: This formatting code only blanks out the cell contents from being seen. They contents are still there and accessible for formulas, charts as such.
Also know how to display colors in chart data labels using custom cell formatting codes
What is your favorite cell formatting trick?















8 Responses to “Create a Combination Chart, Add Secondary Axis in Excel [15 Second Tutorial]”
[...] Select the “daily completed” column and add it to the burn down chart. Once added, change the chart type for this series to bar chart (read how you can combine 2 different chart types in one) [...]
[...] set the height series to be plotted on secondary axis. Learn more about combining 2 chart types and adding secondary axis in [...]
[...] Excel Combination Charts – What are they? [...]
[...] To show the years, I have used another dummy series and plotted it on secondary axis (related: how to add secondary axis?) [...]
Thanks for this one!
[...] Choisissez la colonne « Daily Completed » et ajoutez-la au graphique. Une fois ajoutée, changez le type de graphique pour cette série à histogramme (lisez comment combiner 2 types de graphiques en un : combine 2 different chart types in one) [...]
How do i create a chart that has negative numbers on axis x and y and plot them correctly? I cannot seem to understand how to do this, please help.
Thanks.
Nat
You can also plot 2 or more Y axes in Excel using EZplot or Multy_Y from Office Expander.com
There is a demo version to try.
Cheers.