The order of legends for Stacked Bar Graphs is reversed

The Issue

The legends for stacked bar graphs created from the Grouped or Contingency graph families appear in reverse order on graphs created in Prism version 10.6 or newer when compared to graphs created in Prism versions 9.0 to 10.5. Stacked bar graphs in Prism version 10.6 and newer match graphs that were created with Prism versions prior to 9.0. This updated legend order appears for both newly created stacked bar graphs as well as graphs created in older versions of Prism. Legend orders for other graph types remain unchanged.

Stacked Bar Graph Created in Prism version 9.0 - 10.5

Stacked Bar Graph Created in Prism version 10.6+ (and older than Prism 9.0)

Why does this issue occur?

While introducing other graph improvements introduced in Prism 9, the legend order for stacked bar graphs was unintentionally changed. The legend order for graphs in Prism versions 9.0 - 10.5 maintains the "top to bottom" order of data sets in the source data table (e.g. the "first" data set from the table on the graph is placed at the "top" of the legend by default). However, for stacked bar graphs, this ordering is arguably harder to read and interpret given the arrangement of data sets on the graph itself.

As such, the legend order for stacked bar graphs was updated in Prism version 10.6 to ensure that the top-to-bottom arrangement of data sets on the graph would match the top-to-bottom arrangement of data sets in the graph legend. This creates an overall more intuitive and easier-to-read visualization.

Note: graphs opened in Prism 10.6 will use this default legend order even if the graphs were created in an older version of Prism (version 9.0 - 10.5).

What are the workarounds?

The easiest way to get the visualization back to its appearance in Prism version 9.0 - 10.5 is to use the "Reverse Legend Order" command. To find this command, simply right-click on the graph sheet and select this command from the contextual menu.

This will automatically reverse the order of the data sets in the legend without changing the order of the data sets on the graph.