
This results in a calculated "infinite slope" that cannot provide any meaningful trend that can be displayed. The participants indicated that the error occurs when the X values (those indicated along the horizontal axis) are either 0 or very close in value to each other. You can see it discussed in this Microsoft forum:

The first reports about this message were near the end of July, so it is a relatively recent issue.
Microsoft excel trendline update#
The appearance of this message wasn't caused by an update in Windows, but by an update in the Office 365 version of Excel.
Microsoft excel trendline how to#
However, this doesn’t mean that you are restricted to using only the recommended element type.Richard's computer recently updated Windows 10 and now his Excel charts that have trendlines all have a little message in the top-left corner stating "trendline error." Richard doesn't know if this is related to the Windows update or not, but he needs to understand why the message appeared and how to remove it. For example, if you check “Gridlines” on a bar chart, Chart Elements will automatically add major vertical gridlines, whereas checking “Gridlines” on a column chart will automatically add major horizontal gridlines. gridlines can be horizontal or vertical, major or minor), the Chart Elements feature will help you determine the most appropriate element type based on the chart type. For example, pie charts do not support axes lines, and area charts do not support trendlines in both of these cases, the Chart Elements checklist will show only those elements that can be added to pie charts and area charts respectively:Īdditionally, even though each element type may have multiple types (e.g. The checklist will only show elements that are applicable to your specific chart type – all non-applicable elements will be automatically hidden to reduce confusion and clutter. The Chart Elements feature also has built-in chart type awareness and will intelligently update itself to provide the most applicable set of options based on the type of chart you are using. For example, we are Live Previewing a Data Table on this chart by simply hovering the mouse over “Data Table” in the checklist: Adding and removing any chart element is as easy as a single click! This feature also supports Live Preview, so even if you don’t know what each element is, you can easily preview what the chart would look like with any element added by hovering your mouse on the element.

That’s where our new Chart Elements feature comes in:Ĭlicking on the Chart Elements button will launch a simple and easy-to-use checklist of all the different elements you can add to your chart. Furthermore, each element has many different options for example, a trendline can be one of six different trendline types! It can be difficult to keep track of all these elements, what they’re called, what they are, and fully understand which ones work best for your chart. There are many different elements you can add to a chart to help you clarify your data: from axis lines to trendlines, from data labels to data tables. This blog post will focus on the first button, which launches a feature called Chart Elements. These new buttons show up whenever your chart is selected, providing easy access to the most common and useful chart customization features! While the ribbon is still a great place to access all of the robust features that Excel offers, we’ve done a careful inventory of what formatting and customization tools our users take advantage of most frequently, and brought those tools closer to the chart and right at the user’s fingertips. Once you’ve inserted your chart, you’ll notice the new, on-object chart customization buttons that appear near the top right corner of your chart: With Excel 2013, we made it our mission to simplify this process and to enable users to quickly customize their charts in a few simple clicks.Īs a first step, we’ve made some great improvements in our chart insertion experience (which we’ve blogged about here) to help users get off on the right foot. While Excel boasts many powerful features, it can be challenging to know and locate the exact features necessary to format your chart the way you picture it in your mind. Unfortunately, this is a step that many users struggle with. Sometimes that means fiddling around with the data, or adding elements like data labels or a trendline, or figuring out how to format the chart to make it look fantastic. What’s the first thing you do with a chart after you’ve inserted it? For many users, it’s modifying the chart to make it look exactly the way you want it to look. This post is brought to you by Chris Doan, a Program Manager on the Graphics team.
