Bar chart

A bar chart is a variant of a column chart – same use case and same design options. The main difference is that a bar chart has horizontal bars while a column chart has vertical bars. Bar charts can be a more user-friendly chart to use when you have long axis labels and making them show in the horizontal orientation is far better than having them slant at an angle. In Figure 8.9, you’ll see how a bar chart handles long axis labels compared to how a column chart handles the same in Figure 8.10:

Figure 8.9 – Good handling of long axis labels by a bar chart

The handling of the same long axis label by a column chart is shown as follows. Do, however, note that if the width of the column chart is made wider, it may eventually display the labels horizontally as preferred:

Figure 8.10 – Poor handling of long axis labels by a column chart

Another advantage of a bar chart is that for instances when...