Two series of data with widely differing ranges. The series are complimentary, in that the information needs to be seen together for their interpration to be meaningful, so displaying them side-by-side is ideal and because of the differing ranges both the primary and secondary vertical axes need to be used.
As soon as you tell Excel to use the secondary axis it places the bars infront of each other, which is not useful as occasionally the values of one series is greater than the other and it doesn't matter which series is in the front some data will end up hidden. Clearly this layout method, which is automatically applied and for which there appears to be no easy solution, is not practical
OpenOffice.org Calc produces the same automatic formatting, but to its credit has a built-in solution, a simple 'side by side' check box, which solves the application designer's narrowmindedness with a simple click.
The only solution I have found in Excel is convoluted, so I can only refer to is a work-around.
1. Compile data series.
2. Insert sets of data with zero values between the required data.
3. Generate the chart.
4. Apply the secondary axis as required.
5. Edit the series gap widths to make both bars visible.
6. Edit the legend to delete the name of the zero value ranges.
Step 2 helps to create a gap between the two series of data.
The question: Is there an easier way to acheive the desired result?