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excel chart bar

zmworm edited this page Apr 19, 2026 · 16 revisions

Excel: Chart - bar

A dedicated page for the bar chart type. Bar charts display data as horizontal bars, ideal for ranked comparisons and long category labels. Bar charts are the horizontal variant of column and share all column-specific properties (gap width, overlap, invert if negative, bar shape).

Path: /{SheetName}/chart[N]

Add command shape:

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop title="Department Budget" \
 --prop data="Budget:50,80,120,60" \
 --prop categories="Engineering,Sales,Marketing,Support" \
 <styling props>

See also: Chart - add, Chart - set, column for the vertical variant.

Chart type variants

Type string Grouping 3D
bar Clustered No
barStacked Stacked No
barPercentStacked PercentStacked No
bar3d Clustered Yes

Bar-specific properties

Bar charts share all properties with column charts — the only difference is the orientation (horizontal vs vertical). See column for the full type-specific reference.

Gap width

Property Default Notes
gapWidth / gap 150 Space between bar groups (0-500, as % of bar width) 
# Tight bars (no gap)
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar --prop gapWidth=0 \
 --prop data="Sales:10,20,30" --prop categories="A,B,C"
# Wide gap
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/chart[1] --prop gapWidth=300

Overlap

Property Default Notes
overlap 0 (clustered), 100 (stacked) Bar overlap (-100 to 100, as % of bar width) 
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/chart[1] --prop overlap=50

Invert if negative

Property Default Notes
invertIfNeg / invertIfNegative false Reverse bar color/direction for negative values

Bar shape (3D only)

Property Default Notes
shape / barShape box 3D bar shape: box, cone, cylinder, pyramid

Title styling

Property Default Notes
title — Chart title text
title.font / titleFont — Font family
title.size / titleSize — Font size (pt)
title.color / titleColor — Font color (hex)
title.bold / titleBold — Bold (true/false)
title.glow / titleGlow — Glow: "COLOR-RADIUS-OPACITY" or "none"
title.shadow / titleShadow — Shadow: "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"

Legend

Property Default Notes
legend true Position: top, bottom, left, right, none
legend.overlay false Float legend on top of the chart
legendFont / legend.font — "size:color:fontname"

Axis features

Scale control

Property Default Notes
axisMin / min (auto) Value axis lower bound
axisMax / max (auto) Value axis upper bound
majorUnit (auto) Major gridline / tick interval
minorUnit (auto) Minor gridline / tick interval
axisNumFmt / axisNumberFormat General Number format for tick labels (e.g. "$#,##0", "0%") 
# Lock value axis range
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop data="Budget:50,80,120,60" \
 --prop categories="Eng,Sales,Mkt,Support" \
 --prop axisMin=0 --prop axisMax=150 --prop majorUnit=25

Logarithmic scale

Property Default Notes
logBase / logScale — Logarithmic scale base (e.g. 10)

Reversed axis

Property Default Notes
axisOrientation / axisReverse minMax Set to maxMin or true to flip the value axis

Dual axis (secondary axis)

Property Default Notes
secondaryAxis / secondary — Comma-separated 1-based series indices for secondary value axis 
# Budget on primary axis, headcount on secondary
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop series1="Budget:50,80,120,60" \
 --prop series2="Headcount:5,12,20,8" \
 --prop categories="Eng,Sales,Mkt,Support" \
 --prop secondaryAxis=2

Display units

Property Default Notes
dispUnits / displayUnits — thousands, millions, billions, etc.

Axis visibility and styling

Property Default Notes
axisVisible / axis.visible true Show/hide both axes
axisLine / axis.line — Value axis line: "color:width:dash"
catAxisLine — Category axis line: "color:width:dash"
majorTickMark / majorTick — out, in, cross, none
minorTickMark / minorTick — Same as major tick
tickLabelPos nextTo nextTo, high, low, none

Gridlines

Property Default Notes
gridlines / majorGridlines true Toggle or configure: true, false/none, or "color:widthPt:dash"
minorGridlines false Same format as gridlines 
# Custom gridlines
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop data="Sales:50,80,120" --prop categories="A,B,C" \
 --prop "gridlines=D0D0D0:0.5:solid" \
 --prop "minorGridlines=EEEEEE:0.3:sysDot"

Reference lines (target / threshold overlays)

Property Default Notes
referenceLine / refLine — value or "value:color:width:dash"

Reference lines are vertical overlays (since the value axis is horizontal in bar charts) drawn at a constant value.

# Target line at 100 — red, dashed
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop data="Budget:50,80,120,60" \
 --prop categories="Eng,Sales,Mkt,Support" \
 --prop "referenceLine=100:FF0000:1.5:dash"

Fills and borders

Property Default Notes
plotFill / plotAreaFill — Plot area background: hex, gradient "C1-C2[:angle]", or "none"
chartFill / chartAreaFill — Chart area background
plotArea.border / plotBorder — Plot area outline: "color:width:dash" or "none"
chartArea.border / chartBorder — Chart area outline

Series shadow and outline

Property Default Notes
series.shadow / seriesShadow — "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"
series.outline / seriesOutline — "COLOR-WIDTH" e.g. "FFFFFF-0.5" or "none"

Data labels

Property Default Notes
dataLabels false Toggle data labels
labelPos / labelPosition — Position: center, insideEnd, insideBase, outsideEnd, top, bottom, left, right, bestFit
labelFont — "size:color:bold"
dataLabel{N}.text — Custom text for individual label
dataLabel{N}.x/y/w/h — Manual layout of individual label
dataLabel{N}.delete — Hide individual label
dataLabels.separator — Separator between label parts
dataLabels.numFmt — Number format for labels

Transparency and opacity

Property Default Notes
transparency 0 Series transparency (0-100%)
opacity / alpha 100 Series opacity (0-100%)

Layout control

Property Default Notes
x, y 0 Chart position (column/row index)
width 8 Chart width (column units)
height 15 Chart height (row units)
plotArea.x/y/w/h — Manual plot area layout (0-1 decimal)
title.x/y/w/h — Manual title layout
legend.x/y/w/h — Manual legend layout

Display blanks

Property Default Notes
dispBlanksAs / blanksAs gap How blank cells are handled: gap, zero, span/connect

Conditional coloring

Property Default Notes
colorRule / conditionalColor — Color data points conditionally
point{N}.color — Individual data point color (hex)

3D settings

Property Default Notes
view3d / camera / perspective — "rotX,rotY,perspective" e.g. "15,20,30"

Applies only to bar3d chart type.

Examples

# Horizontal bar chart
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop title="Department Budget" \
 --prop data="Budget:50,80,120,60" \
 --prop categories="Engineering,Sales,Marketing,Support"
# Stacked horizontal bars
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=barStacked \
 --prop title="Task Breakdown" \
 --prop data="Dev:40,60,30;QA:20,15,25;Design:10,20,15" \
 --prop categories="Sprint 1,Sprint 2,Sprint 3"

Full example: presentation-grade bar chart

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=bar \
 --prop title="Department Budget Ranking" \
 --prop title.size=14 --prop title.bold=true \
 --prop title.font="Arial" --prop title.color=1F2937 \
 --prop series1="FY2024:50,80,120,60,45" \
 --prop series2="FY2023:40,70,100,55,40" \
 --prop categories="Engineering,Sales,Marketing,Support,Legal" \
 --prop colors="4472C4,ED7D31" \
 --prop gapWidth=100 \
 --prop dataLabels=true --prop labelPos=outsideEnd \
 --prop "labelFont=9:6B7280:false" \
 --prop "gridlines=E5E7EB:0.5:solid" \
 --prop "referenceLine=80:FF0000:1:dash" \
 --prop plotFill=FAFBFC \
 --prop legend=bottom \
 --prop "legendfont=9:6B7280:Arial" \
 --prop x=0 --prop y=0 --prop width=14 --prop height=20

HTML preview support

Feature Preview Notes
Horizontal bars Yes Labels on left axis
Stacked / percent stacked Yes
Gap width Yes
Data labels Yes Positioned at bar center
Reference lines Yes Vertical overlays
3D bars Yes Isometric projection
Custom axis scale Yes axisMin/axisMax/majorUnit
Gridlines Yes Color, width, dash from OOXML
Shadow effects No Decorative; not rendered
Glow effects No Decorative; not rendered

Known quirks

  • Bar is horizontal column. All column-specific properties (gapWidth, overlap, invertIfNeg, shape) work identically on bar charts. The only difference is axis orientation.
  • Reference lines are vertical in bar charts (since the value axis is horizontal), unlike column/line charts where they are horizontal.
  • 3D bar charts use bar3d type string. The shape property controls the 3D bar shape.

Inspect an existing bar chart

# List all charts
officecli query data.xlsx chart
# Inspect a specific chart
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/chart[1]"
# Render to HTML preview
officecli view data.xlsx html > preview.html

See Also

  • Chart - Overview of chart operations
  • Chart add - Generic chart add (all types)
  • Chart set - Modify existing charts
  • Chart get - Read back chart properties
  • column - Vertical variant (shared type-specific properties)

Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.53

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