Sound like a silly question, but it is a bit confusing indeed.

One day, a friend asked me how to sort a bar chart in descending order.  I told her to sort the data.

She replied: “I did.  The data is sorted in descending order.”

Then I added: “Sort it in reverse order, i.e. ascending order”.

As simple as this.  Yeah!

I know it sounds a bit confusing, but when we know that the data is plotted  from the bottom of the bar chart, then it makes sense.

What if I want the data table to be displayed side by side and have the bars sorted in the same order?

No problem.

1. Select the axis, Right Click
2. On the Format Axis pane, select Axis Options
3. Check the Categories in reverse order

Done! 🙂