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#1
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Labeling time scale x axis
I have 5 years worth of data (price vs. date). It is graphed correctly on a
time-scale. The problem is the x-axis labels. There are so many it's just a blur of black smudgy ink below the x-axis. When I made the Base Unit "months", Major unit 12 months and minor unit one month, no change occurred, and the choices I made reverted back to the default? Days, 7, 1. What I want is a tick mark on the x-axis every month, with a label every January; e.g. Jan-01.....Jan-02....etc. |
#2
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Are you sure the x-axis is defined as a proper linear scale ? (i.e. xy-scatter plot) If not, excel treats the x-data as meaningless items. Bas Hartkamp "Bob Richardson" <bobr at whidbey dot com wrote in message ... I have 5 years worth of data (price vs. date). It is graphed correctly on a time-scale. The problem is the x-axis labels. There are so many it's just a blur of black smudgy ink below the x-axis. When I made the Base Unit "months", Major unit 12 months and minor unit one month, no change occurred, and the choices I made reverted back to the default? Days, 7, 1. What I want is a tick mark on the x-axis every month, with a label every January; e.g. Jan-01.....Jan-02....etc. |
#3
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The x-axis is defined as "Time-scale". (On the Axes tab of the Chart Options
dialog box) Moreover, I can see the plotted points, and they are correct (lots in the winter, few in the summer). My problem is the labeling of the x-axis. It's all a smudge, as every point has a label. That means I have 50 dates printed in a space of 5-6 inches on my monitor. The dates are all printed on top of each other. "HS Hartkamp" wrote in message ... Are you sure the x-axis is defined as a proper linear scale ? (i.e. xy-scatter plot) If not, excel treats the x-data as meaningless items. Bas Hartkamp "Bob Richardson" <bobr at whidbey dot com wrote in message ... I have 5 years worth of data (price vs. date). It is graphed correctly on a time-scale. The problem is the x-axis labels. There are so many it's just a blur of black smudgy ink below the x-axis. When I made the Base Unit "months", Major unit 12 months and minor unit one month, no change occurred, and the choices I made reverted back to the default? Days, 7, 1. What I want is a tick mark on the x-axis every month, with a label every January; e.g. Jan-01.....Jan-02....etc. |
#4
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You are obviously using a line or column chart as you have set the
time-scale option. I have replicated your squashed up labels by setting the units as days and the intervals as 7 and 1 days but I had no trouble changing it back to months again. Make sure absolutely every box reads Months on the Format Axis window and ensure that there are no ticks in the boxes beside the base units, major unit and minor unit settings. You should also remove the ticks beside the minimum and maximum settings if you want to force them to the values you require. Andrea Jones www.stratatraining.co.uk |
#5
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Bob -
Keep the Axis as a time scale category axis, don't change to an XY Scatter chart. Keep the Base Unit on the X Axis Scale dialog in Days, but change the Major Unit to 1 Year, and the Minor Unit to something like 3 Months. Make sure the boxes ('Auto') in front of these options remain unchecked. This should neaten up your axis. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Peltier Technical Services Tutorials and Custom Solutions http://PeltierTech.com/ _______ Bob Richardson wrote: I have 5 years worth of data (price vs. date). It is graphed correctly on a time-scale. The problem is the x-axis labels. There are so many it's just a blur of black smudgy ink below the x-axis. When I made the Base Unit "months", Major unit 12 months and minor unit one month, no change occurred, and the choices I made reverted back to the default? Days, 7, 1. What I want is a tick mark on the x-axis every month, with a label every January; e.g. Jan-01.....Jan-02....etc. |
#6
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Thank you Jon - that did it. My biggest problem was rechecking the auto
boxes. It wasn't clear to me that they should remain unchecked. "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... Bob - Keep the Axis as a time scale category axis, don't change to an XY Scatter chart. Keep the Base Unit on the X Axis Scale dialog in Days, but change the Major Unit to 1 Year, and the Minor Unit to something like 3 Months. Make sure the boxes ('Auto') in front of these options remain unchecked. This should neaten up your axis. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Peltier Technical Services Tutorials and Custom Solutions http://PeltierTech.com/ _______ Bob Richardson wrote: I have 5 years worth of data (price vs. date). It is graphed correctly on a time-scale. The problem is the x-axis labels. There are so many it's just a blur of black smudgy ink below the x-axis. When I made the Base Unit "months", Major unit 12 months and minor unit one month, no change occurred, and the choices I made reverted back to the default? Days, 7, 1. What I want is a tick mark on the x-axis every month, with a label every January; e.g. Jan-01.....Jan-02....etc. |
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