You can quickly move a horizontal axis to the bottom of a graph in Excel by modifying the Label Position value within the Format Axis panel.

The following step-by-step example shows how to do so in practice.

Step 1: Enter the  Data

First, let’s enter the following dataset into Excel that shows the sales growth for some company during 10 consecutive sales periods:

Step 2: Create the Graph

Next, highlight the values in the range B2:B11.

Then click the Insert tab along the top ribbon, then click the icon called Clustered Column within the Charts group.

The following chart will automatically appear:

By default, Excel places the horizontal axis at a value of y = 0.

Step 3: Move Horizontal Axis to Bottom of Graph

When a graph has negative values such as this one, it’s usually best to move the horizontal axis to the bottom so that the axis labels are easier to read.

To do so, right click any of the values on the horizontal axis, then click Format Axis from the dropdown menu:

In the Format Axis panel that appears, click the dropdown arrow next to Labels, then click the dropdown arrow next to Label Position, then click Low:

The horizontal axis will be moved to the bottom of the graph:

Notice that it’s much easier to read the axis labels now and the labels no longer overlap with any of the bars that have negative values.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel: