Dotted Lines are for Projections (& How-To Instructions for Excel)

Ann K. Emery

Last updated:

Jun 11th, 2024

Related resources:

How-To Tutorials, Line Charts, Microsoft Excel, YouTube Videos

Dotted lines have a specific purpose in dataviz: for projections or estimations. Not just because.

Stick around for the how-to lesson in Microsoft Excel.

You’ll learn how to select a single dot (or “marker”) along the line, which controls the preceding line segment.

Then, you can turn just one section of the graph into a dotted line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titF7TQcwDc

What’s Inside

0:00 Don’t Use Dotted Lines “Just Because”

0:20 Dotted Lines are for Projections or Estimations

1:24 How to Make Dotted Lines on Excel Graphs

3:44 Questions??

More about Ann K. Emery
Ann K. Emery is a sought-after speaker who is determined to get your data out of spreadsheets and into stakeholders’ hands. Each year, she leads more than 100 workshops, webinars, and keynotes for thousands of people around the globe. Her design consultancy also overhauls graphs, publications, and slideshows with the goal of making technical information easier to understand for non-technical audiences.

Weekly Newsletter

Data visualization time-savers in everyday software, like Excel.

Our weekly newsletter is shared with a community of 8,000 professionals.