excel chart column

Excel: Chart - column / bar

A dedicated page for column and bar chart types. Both are rendered by the same OOXML element (c:barChart / c:bar3DChart) with c:barDir controlling the orientation. Column = vertical bars, bar = horizontal bars.

Path: /{SheetName}/chart[N]

See also: Chart - add, Chart - set.

Chart type variants

Type string	Direction	Grouping	3D
column	Vertical	Clustered	No
columnStacked	Vertical	Stacked	No
columnPercentStacked	Vertical	PercentStacked	No
column3d	Vertical	Clustered	Yes
bar	Horizontal	Clustered	No
barStacked	Horizontal	Stacked	No
barPercentStacked	Horizontal	PercentStacked	No
bar3d	Horizontal	Clustered	Yes

Column/bar-specific properties

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=column --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)

Positive values overlap bars; negative values add space between bars within the same category group.

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

officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/chart[1] --prop invertIfNeg=true

Bar shape (3D only)

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

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=column3d --prop shape=cylinder \
  --prop data="Q:10,20,30,40" --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4"

Examples

# Basic column chart
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=column \
  --prop title="Quarterly Sales" \
  --prop data="East:120,180,210,250;West:90,140,160,200" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4"

# 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 column with reference line
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=columnStacked \
  --prop title="Revenue Breakdown" \
  --prop data="Product:40,50,60;Service:20,30,40" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3" \
  --prop "referenceLine=80:FF0000:1:dash"

HTML preview support

Feature	Preview	Notes
Vertical columns	Yes
Horizontal bars	Yes
Stacked / percent stacked	Yes
Gap width	Yes
Data labels	Yes	Positioned at bar center
Reference lines	Yes	Horizontal (column) or vertical (bar)
3D bars	Yes	Isometric projection
Custom axis scale	Yes

See Also

• Chart - Overview
• Chart add - Add a chart
• Chart set - Modify chart properties

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Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.43