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zmworm edited this page Apr 29, 2026 · 16 revisions

Excel: Chart - combo

A dedicated page for the combo chart type. Combo charts overlay multiple chart types (column + line, column + area, etc.) on shared axes, enabling dual-metric visualizations like "revenue bars with growth-rate line".

Path: /{SheetName}/chart[N]

Add command shape:

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop title="Revenue vs Growth" \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
  --prop series2="Growth %:5,8,12,15" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
  --prop secondaryAxis=2 \
  <styling props>

See also: Chart - add, Chart - set.

Combo-specific properties

Combo split (creation only)

Property Default Notes
comboSplit — Number of series rendered as bars; remaining become lines 
# First series as bars, second as line
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
  --prop series2="Growth %:5,8,12,15" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4"

Combo types (set only)

Property Default Notes
comboTypes / combo.types — Per-series chart types: comma-separated list

Rebuilds the entire chart structure to assign each series its own chart type. Supported per-series types: column, bar, line, area.

# Remap: first two series as columns, third as line
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/chart[1] --prop combotypes="column,column,line"

Secondary axis

Combo charts commonly pair a secondary Y axis for the line series:

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300" \
  --prop series2="Margin %:15,18,22" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3" \
  --prop secondaryAxis=2

Detection

A chart is identified as combo when the plot area contains more than one chart type element (e.g. both c:barChart and c:lineChart).

Title styling

Property Default Notes
title — Chart title text
title.font / titleFont — Font family
title.size / titleSize — Font size (pt)
title.color / titleColor — Font color (hex)
title.bold / titleBold — Bold (true/false)
title.glow / titleGlow — Glow: "COLOR-RADIUS-OPACITY" or "none"
title.shadow / titleShadow — Shadow: "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"

Legend

Property Default Notes
legend true Position: top, bottom, left, right, none
legend.overlay false Float legend on top of the chart
legendFont / legend.font — "size:color:fontname"

Axis features

Scale control

Property Default Notes
axisMin / min (auto) Value axis lower bound
axisMax / max (auto) Value axis upper bound
majorUnit (auto) Major gridline / tick interval
minorUnit (auto) Minor gridline / tick interval
axisNumFmt / axisNumberFormat General Number format for tick labels (e.g. "$#,##0", "0%") 
# Lock primary Y axis range
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
  --prop series2="Growth %:5,8,12,15" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
  --prop secondaryAxis=2 \
  --prop axisMin=0 --prop axisMax=500 --prop majorUnit=100

Logarithmic scale

Property Default Notes
logBase / logScale — Logarithmic scale base (e.g. 10)

Reversed axis

Property Default Notes
axisOrientation / axisReverse minMax Set to maxMin or true to flip the Y axis

Dual axis (secondary axis)

Property Default Notes
secondaryAxis / secondary — Comma-separated 1-based series indices for secondary Y axis 
# Revenue on left axis, growth rate on right axis
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
  --prop series2="Growth %:5,8,12,15" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
  --prop secondaryAxis=2

Display units

Property Default Notes
dispUnits / displayUnits — thousands, millions, billions, etc.

Axis visibility and styling

Property Default Notes
axisVisible / axis.visible true Show/hide both axes
axisLine / axis.line — Value axis line: "color:width:dash"
catAxisLine — Category axis line: "color:width:dash"
majorTickMark / majorTick — out, in, cross, none
minorTickMark / minorTick — Same as major tick
tickLabelPos nextTo nextTo, high, low, none

Gridlines

Property Default Notes
gridlines / majorGridlines true Toggle or configure: true, false/none, or "color:widthPt:dash"
minorGridlines false Same format as gridlines 
# Custom gridlines for combo chart
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300" \
  --prop series2="Growth:5,8,12" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3" \
  --prop "gridlines=D0D0D0:0.5:solid" \
  --prop "minorGridlines=EEEEEE:0.3:sysDot"

Reference lines (target / threshold overlays)

Property Default Notes
referenceLine / refLine — value or "value:color:width:dash"

Reference lines are horizontal overlays drawn at a constant value. They appear in the legend and are rendered in the HTML preview with the correct dash pattern.

# Target line at 300 — red, dashed
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=1 \
  --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
  --prop series2="Growth:5,8,12,15" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
  --prop "referenceLine=300:FF0000:1.5:dash"

Fills and borders

Property Default Notes
plotFill / plotAreaFill — Plot area background: hex, gradient "C1-C2[:angle]", or "none"
chartFill / chartAreaFill — Chart area background
plotArea.border / plotBorder — Plot area outline: "color:width:dash" or "none"
chartArea.border / chartBorder — Chart area outline

Series shadow and outline

Property Default Notes
series.shadow / seriesShadow — "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"
series.outline / seriesOutline — "COLOR-WIDTH" e.g. "FFFFFF-0.5" or "none"

Data labels

Property Default Notes
dataLabels false Toggle data labels
labelPos / labelPosition — Position: center, insideEnd, insideBase, outsideEnd, top, bottom, left, right, bestFit
labelFont — "size:color:bold"
dataLabel{N}.text — Custom text for individual label
dataLabel{N}.x/y/w/h — Manual layout of individual label
dataLabel{N}.delete — Hide individual label
dataLabels.separator — Separator between label parts
dataLabels.numFmt — Number format for labels

Transparency and opacity

Property Default Notes
transparency 0 Series transparency (0-100%)
opacity / alpha 100 Series opacity (0-100%)

Layout control

Property Default Notes
x, y 0 Chart position (column/row index)
width 8 Chart width (column units)
height 15 Chart height (row units)
plotArea.x/y/w/h — Manual plot area layout (0-1 decimal)
title.x/y/w/h — Manual title layout
legend.x/y/w/h — Manual legend layout

Display blanks

Property Default Notes
dispBlanksAs / blanksAs gap How blank cells are handled: gap, zero, span/connect

Conditional coloring

Property Default Notes
colorRule / conditionalColor — Color data points conditionally
point{N}.color — Individual data point color (hex)

Full example: presentation-grade combo chart

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
  --prop chartType=combo \
  --prop comboSplit=2 \
  --prop title="Revenue & Margin Analysis" \
  --prop title.size=14 --prop title.bold=true \
  --prop title.font="Arial" --prop title.color=1F2937 \
  --prop series1="Product:120,180,210,250" \
  --prop series2="Service:40,60,80,100" \
  --prop series3="Margin %:15,18,22,25" \
  --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
  --prop secondaryAxis=3 \
  --prop colors="4472C4,ED7D31,70AD47" \
  --prop "gridlines=E5E7EB:0.5:solid" \
  --prop "referenceLine=200:FF0000:1:dash" \
  --prop plotFill=FAFBFC \
  --prop legend=bottom \
  --prop "legendfont=9:6B7280:Arial" \
  --prop x=0 --prop y=0 --prop width=14 --prop height=20

HTML preview support

Feature Preview Notes
Bar + line overlay Yes Composite rendering
Shared axes Yes
Secondary axis Yes
Data labels Yes Value text at series points
Reference lines Yes Horizontal overlays
Custom axis scale Yes axisMin/axisMax/majorUnit
Gridlines Yes Color, width, dash from OOXML
Shadow effects No Decorative; not rendered
Glow effects No Decorative; not rendered

Known quirks

  • comboSplit is creation-only. You cannot change the split after creation; use comboTypes via set to remap series types.
  • Detection is heuristic. A chart with two chart type elements in the plot area is identified as combo, even if both are the same type (e.g. two c:barChart elements).

Inspect an existing combo chart

# List all charts
officecli query data.xlsx chart

# Inspect a specific chart
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/chart[1]"

# Render to HTML preview
officecli view data.xlsx html > preview.html

See Also

Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.64

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