How to add Trendline in Excel Charts

With Excel Charts, it is very easy to create Trendlines for your data.  Trendlines show which direction the trend of your data is going, and gives you the trajectory as well.

Key Takeaways

• Visualize Data Trends Instantly – Trendlines help highlight patterns or direction in your charted data, such as upward or downward trends.

• Supports Multiple Chart Types – You can add trendlines to Line, Column, Bar, and Scatter charts, among others.

• Choose from Various Trendline Types – Excel offers Linear, Exponential, Logarithmic, Polynomial, Power, and Moving Average trendlines.

• Customize Your Trendline – You can change the color, line style, and even display the equation or R-squared value on the chart.

• Easily Accessible from Chart Elements – Just click the chart, use the “+” button (Chart Elements), and check “Trendline” or go to Chart Tools > Add Chart Element > Trendline.

How to add Trendline in Excel

STEP 2: Select the Format Trendline option.

Or, you can skip STEP 1 & 2 and simply double click on the trendline to open the Format Trendline pane.

STEP 3: From the Format Trendline pane, click the Fill & Line category.

STEP 4: Select color – BLUE

STEP 5: Change the width to 2.5

STEP 6: Change the dash type

Your formatted trendline is ready!

Use Trendline to Forecast Future Data

In Excel, you can extend your data and project the data trend into the future or past using the features of Trendline.

In this example, you want to forecast sales for the next 6 periods. Follow the steps below to understand how to forecast data trends.

STEP 1:Double click on the trendline to open the Format Trendline pane.

STEP 2: Select the Trendline Options tab.

STEP 3: Under forecast, type “6” in the forward box.

Your project data trend for the next 6 periods is created.

You can use trendline to extrapolate the trend of the data into the past. Simply type the period in the backward box instead of the forward box.

Add multiple trendline to same chart

Until now, you have learned how to add trendline in Excel. But you can add multiple trendlines to the same chart. Let’s see how it can be done.

Say, you want to add both linear and moving average trendline to the existing data. Add the first linear trendline as discussed above and then follow the steps below to add another trendline.

STEP 1: Click on the Chart Elements (“+” icon) on the top-right corner of the chart.

STEP 2: Click on the arrow next to Trendline

STEP 3: Select Two Period Moving Average from the list

STEP 4: Select the series SALES.

Excel will show both the trendlines on the same chart.

STEP 3: From the dropdown, uncheck Trendline.

Or, you could simply right click on the trendline and click on delete.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add a trendline to my chart in Excel?
Click on the chart, select the “+” icon next to it, check Trendline, or go to Chart Design > Add Chart Element > Trendline.

Which chart types support trendlines in Excel?
Trendlines can be added to most 2D charts, including Line, Column, Bar, Area, and Scatter charts. They are not available for Pie charts.

What is the purpose of displaying the trendline equation and R-squared value?
The equation represents the mathematical formula of the line, and the R-squared value indicates how well the line fits the data (1.0 = perfect fit).

Can I apply more than one trendline type to a single chart?
Yes, if your chart has multiple data series, you can apply a different trendline type to each series individually.

What’s the difference between a linear and a moving average trendline?
A linear trendline shows a constant rate of increase/decrease, while a moving average smooths out fluctuations to show a more general trend.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have covered how to add trendline in Excel, the different types of trendlines, formatting the trendline, extending the trendline into future or past periods, adding multiple trendlines to the same chart, and finally how to remove them.