Charts in PowerPoint, Using the Invert if Negative Option in PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows

In an ideal world, we would like to have charts that had all positive values -- but sometimes growth rates may plummet and you might end up seeing negative values in your charts, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Chart with negative figures

Now by default, PowerPoint uses the same color fills for negative values in any chart (again, see Figure 1 above) -- although you can override that with a convenient Invert if Negative option that we explored towards the end of the Changing Fills and Outlines of Charts tutorial. In this tutorial, we'll cover everything right from scratch all over again -- so feel free to continue reading this page for now.

Note: The Invert if Negative option is only enabled for column, bar, cylinder, cone and pyramid chart types. The pie and area chart types do not have this option as they don't plot negative figures.

You must have a chart that has negative values, as shown in Figure 2. Double-click the chart and then select the data series. If you have trouble selecting the data series, you can select any chart object from the Standard toolbar in chart editing mode.

Figure 2: Selected chart object
With the data series selected, choose the Format | Selected Data Series menu option, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Selected Data Series
This summons the Format Data Series dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Format Data Series
Within the Patterns tab of the dialog box, choose Invert if Negative option (highlighted in red) and click OK. This will change the color of the negative figure column to white, as you can see in Figure 5. Most of the time, you don't want the negative color to be white -- we address this issue in our Changing Color for Negative Data Series in PowerPoint Charts tutorial.

Figure 5: Negative figure column

Note: You can change the color of your negative figure column to something other than white -- our Changing Color for Negative Data Series in PowerPoint Charts tutorial explains more.
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