Skip to content

Navigation Menu

Sign in
Appearance settings

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests...

Provide feedback

We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly
Sign up
Appearance settings

excel chart waterfall

zmworm edited this page Apr 29, 2026 · 16 revisions

Excel: Chart - waterfall

A dedicated page for the waterfall chart type. Waterfall charts (also called bridge charts) show how an initial value is affected by a series of positive and negative changes, ending with a cumulative total. Common in financial P&L presentations.

Path: /{SheetName}/chart[N]

Add command shape:

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="P&L Waterfall" \
 --prop data="Flow:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Costs:-300,Tax:-100,Net:1100" \
 --prop increaseColor=70AD47 \
 --prop decreaseColor=FF0000 \
 --prop totalColor=4472C4 \
 <styling props>

See also: Chart - add, Chart - set.

Chart type variants

Type string Aliases
waterfall wf

Waterfall-specific properties

Colors

Property Default Notes
increaseColor 4472C4 (blue) Color for positive change bars
decreaseColor FF0000 (red) Color for negative change bars
totalColor 2E75B6 (dark blue) Color for the cumulative total bar

Total bar

Property Default Notes
waterfallTotal true Show cumulative total as the last bar

When true, the last data point is recomputed as the cumulative sum and rendered with totalColor.

Data format

Waterfall data uses a special Tag:Value format to mark totals and subtotals:

Name:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Costs:-300,Tax:-100,Net:1100
  • The first value is the starting point
  • Intermediate values are deltas (positive = increase, negative = decrease)
  • The last value is the cumulative total (auto-calculated when waterfallTotal=true)

Examples

# Basic P&L waterfall
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="P&L Waterfall" \
 --prop data="Flow:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Costs:-300,Tax:-100,Net:1100" \
 --prop increaseColor=70AD47 \
 --prop decreaseColor=FF0000 \
 --prop totalColor=4472C4
# Minimal waterfall (auto total)
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="Budget Changes" \
 --prop data="Budget:Base:50000,New Hires:12000,Equipment:-3000,Training:-2000,Total:57000"

Implementation details

Waterfall charts are implemented as stacked bar charts with 3 series:

  1. Base (invisible) - running total baseline with no fill
  2. Increase (visible) - positive change bars
  3. Decrease (visible) - negative change bars

The "floating bar" effect is achieved by the invisible base series pushing the visible bars to the correct vertical position. Default gapWidth=80 and overlap=100 for a connected appearance.

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 Y axis range for P&L
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="P&L Waterfall" \
 --prop data="Flow:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Costs:-300,Tax:-100,Net:1100" \
 --prop axisMin=0 --prop axisMax=2000 --prop majorUnit=200

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 Y axis

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 
# Subtle gridlines for waterfall
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="P&L Waterfall" \
 --prop data="Flow:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Costs:-300,Tax:-100,Net:1100" \
 --prop "gridlines=E5E7EB:0.5:solid" \
 --prop "minorGridlines=F3F4F6:0.3:sysDot"

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)

Full example: presentation-grade waterfall chart

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=waterfall \
 --prop title="FY2024 P&L Bridge" \
 --prop title.size=14 --prop title.bold=true \
 --prop title.font="Arial" --prop title.color=1F2937 \
 --prop data="Flow:Start:1000,Revenue:500,Services:200,COGS:-300,OpEx:-150,Tax:-100,Net:1150" \
 --prop increaseColor=70AD47 \
 --prop decreaseColor=ED7D31 \
 --prop totalColor=4472C4 \
 --prop dataLabels=true --prop labelPos=outsideEnd \
 --prop "labelFont=9:6B7280:true" \
 --prop "gridlines=E5E7EB:0.5:solid" \
 --prop "axisNumFmt=$#,##0" \
 --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
Floating bars Yes Via stacked column rendering
Increase/decrease colors Yes
Total bar color Yes
Data labels Yes Value text near bars
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

  • Colors are set at creation only. increaseColor, decreaseColor, and totalColor are applied during add; there is no dedicated setter to change them after creation (use point{N}.color instead).
  • Detection pattern: officecli identifies waterfall charts by checking for a stacked bar with 3 series where the first is named "Base" with no fill.

Inspect an existing waterfall 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

Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.64

Clone this wiki locally

AltStyle によって変換されたページ (->オリジナル) /