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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.