Thread: Why does Excel automatically choose the PlotBy method

Does anyone know what the criteria is that Excel uses to decide whether
to plot by rows or columns. In most cases it will default to rows on a
column chart, but every now and then it decides to choose columns when
the selected range is non-contiguous (which is legal), but rectangular.
Anyone seen this behavior before?

Roy

Roy -

Excel chooses ByRow/ByColumn based on the shape of the selected range.
If your data range has equal rows and columns, or more columns than
rows, Excel chooses ByRow. If you have more rows than columns, Excel
chooses ByColumn. Sometimes if a discontiguous range is selected, Excel
forgets its guidelines.

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

roybrew@att.net wrote:

> Does anyone know what the criteria is that Excel uses to decide whether
> to plot by rows or columns. In most cases it will default to rows on a
> column chart, but every now and then it decides to choose columns when
> the selected range is non-contiguous (which is legal), but rectangular.
> Anyone seen this behavior before?
>
> Roy
>

Grrr. Thanks Jon for clearign that up. Much appreciated. I've been
able to get around it by jamming in the "rows" parameter, rather than
letting Excel "think".

Roy