Hi Folks,
I have a simple spreadsheet showing my utility bills for each month. From
this data I created a vertical bar chart for the most recent 12 months of
bills. Recently when I added the latest month's bill and removed the oldest
month's bill to make the graph show only 12 months of data, all the vertical
bars changed to single pixel vertical lines of the same height that the bar
should have been. The new number is within the range of other data. If I go
back to the same data that was used for the previous 12 months the chart
automatically returns to a bar chart. What would cause the chart to change
from vertical bars to vertical lines and back just by the inclusion of a
different number?

Dvanwig,

It sounds as if one or more of the new dates are wrong -- perhaps the year is very different
from the others. If not that, then post how you're getting it to do only the last 12
months. Give the formula for the named range for the x data.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dvanwig" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,
I have a simple spreadsheet showing my utility bills for each month. From
this data I created a vertical bar chart for the most recent 12 months of
bills. Recently when I added the latest month's bill and removed the oldest
month's bill to make the graph show only 12 months of data, all the vertical
bars changed to single pixel vertical lines of the same height that the bar
should have been. The new number is within the range of other data. If I go
back to the same data that was used for the previous 12 months the chart
automatically returns to a bar chart. What would cause the chart to change
from vertical bars to vertical lines and back just by the inclusion of a
different number?

Also check the category axis type. Chart menu Chart Options Axes tab,
and look under Category (X) Axis. If it says Time-Scale or Automatic, you
should change it to Category. Otherwise, each bar is 1/365 of the year wide,
which is pretty narrow.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"Earl Kiosterud" wrote in message
...
Dvanwig,

It sounds as if one or more of the new dates are wrong -- perhaps the year
is very different from the others. If not that, then post how you're
getting it to do only the last 12 months. Give the formula for the named
range for the x data.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dvanwig" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,
I have a simple spreadsheet showing my utility bills for each month.
From
this data I created a vertical bar chart for the most recent 12 months of
bills. Recently when I added the latest month's bill and removed the
oldest
month's bill to make the graph show only 12 months of data, all the
vertical
bars changed to single pixel vertical lines of the same height that the
bar
should have been. The new number is within the range of other data. If
I go
back to the same data that was used for the previous 12 months the chart
automatically returns to a bar chart. What would cause the chart to
change
from vertical bars to vertical lines and back just by the inclusion of a
different number?

Thank you Jon. The Category (X) Axis information showed "Automatic". When I
changed it to "Category" that fixed everything. Thank you again.

All the best,

Doug VW

"Jon Peltier" wrote:

Also check the category axis type. Chart menu Chart Options Axes tab,
and look under Category (X) Axis. If it says Time-Scale or Automatic, you
should change it to Category. Otherwise, each bar is 1/365 of the year wide,
which is pretty narrow.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"Earl Kiosterud" wrote in message
...
Dvanwig,

It sounds as if one or more of the new dates are wrong -- perhaps the year
is very different from the others. If not that, then post how you're
getting it to do only the last 12 months. Give the formula for the named
range for the x data.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dvanwig" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,
I have a simple spreadsheet showing my utility bills for each month.
From
this data I created a vertical bar chart for the most recent 12 months of
bills. Recently when I added the latest month's bill and removed the
oldest
month's bill to make the graph show only 12 months of data, all the
vertical
bars changed to single pixel vertical lines of the same height that the
bar
should have been. The new number is within the range of other data. If
I go
back to the same data that was used for the previous 12 months the chart
automatically returns to a bar chart. What would cause the chart to
change
from vertical bars to vertical lines and back just by the inclusion of a
different number?