Stacked bar chart proportions not as expected So maybe my expectations need adju

Question

Stacked bar chart proportions not as expected

So maybe my expectations need adjusting, but here's the issue:

I made a 2-d 100% stacked bar chart that was working nicely until I used certain values that madee it look wrong. Here's a link to the chart. The problem exhibits in Excel 2011, Excel 2013 aand in SkyDrive. Despite SkyDrive's protests, the file does not contain any links or picture objectss.

There are 3 values displayed by the charrt: %Favorabble, Neutral, and Unfavorable.

In the chart aas I uploaded it on SkyDrive I have two worksheets: Q118 and Q19

The values for Q18 are:

.80 .10 and .10

These values produce a chart as expected, with 80% of the answers being the lion's share of the bar in green.

When I changed the values as shown in Q19, the bar for neutral grows, which I do not expect. Here are the values that don't look right:

.87 .10 and .03

To me, the green portion should be bigger, not smaller in Q19 and the neutral value should not have grown. Are my expectations wrong for this chart, or is Excel messing up??

Explanation / Answer

You have hidden the horizontal (value) axis. If you show it, you'll see what happens.

The scale of the horizontal axis is automatic.

In Q18, the numbers are such that Excel's algorithm for the scale sets the minimum to 0 and the maximum to 1, so the chart displays the entire range from 0% to 100%.

In Q19, because of the changed values, Excel sets the minimum to 0.8, so the chart only displays the range from 80% to 100%, and the % Favorable part looks proportionally too small - you actually only see the part from 80% to 87%.

You can edit the horizontal axis scale and set the minimum to Fixed at 0 instead of to Automatic.

After that, you can hide the horizontal axis again.

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