Actually, in one of the SPs this was partially addressed. I think now if the
axis labels have a date format, Excel is more likely to allow entry of
dates, but some testing I did showed that it was not consistent. Of course,
in previous versions, it didn't matter.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/

Advanced Excel Conference - June 17-18 2009 - Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009...00906ACNJ.html
_______


"Richard Green" <Richard wrote in message
...
Does anyone know if there are any plans to reintroduce the use of dates as
min/max values, or are we stuck with converting dates to serial numbers
for
ever? I use this all the time when analysing data and it is a pain!

"Jon Peltier" wrote:

The dialogs for charting in 2007 are pretty flaky. I haven't experienced
settings not being set, but I have had some interesting times entering
dates. You know you can't enter XY chart axis parameters in date format
any
more? That was a real time saver in 2003.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/
_______


"curvature" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the help. With your prodding, I discovered two things that
are probably too small to be of interest, but I add them for other
apparently stupid people such as myself.

1) The root sounce of my problem was that I was changing the value in
the Maximum field and then clicking Close at the bottom of the dialog
box.

You have to hit Enter in the Maximum field for the change to take
effect. (I told you this would make me appear stupid. I think there was
an "OK" box in Excel 2003, which applied all the values you entered,
but I'm not sure).

2) It appears that if you use the default "two digit" year format that
shows up in my installation, any changes in the month you enter default
to the current year. I tried to change my Minimum value from Aug-04 to
Jun-04 and the axis would always show Jun-09.

You have to enter Jun-2004 before it would show my desired year.

In any case, I now have what I want and your prodding helped. Thanks
and I'll click Yes on the Helpful prompt.

"Shane Devenshire" wrote:

Hi,

In 2007:

Right-click the axis and choose Format Axis, then click Fixed to the
right
of Maximum on the Axis Options tab and enter a new Maximum value
--
If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"curvature" wrote:

One of many questions under the new Office 2007. Trying to reproduce
the old
behavior some way.

In Excel 2003... rioght click on X axis -- select Format Axis --
change
value in "Maximum" field -- Bingo. Chart has new scale (extended
with
dates
for another year)

If I can't do this in Excel 2007, I just need to know so I can
find/buy
other software.