Chaning X axis scale in Excel 2003

[wendythelwell]

I am having problems with changing the scale on for example a bar chart x axis. When I double click the axis to bring up the Formax Axis menu the options to change the scale under the scale tab are not the same as the Y axis as the min and max options etc are not available. Has anyone else come across this problem and does anyone know how to change the scale and set the min and max options.

[Jon Peltier]

In a column chart, the X axis is a category axis. The category labels
are just that, text labels, interpreted without numerical value (even if
they look like numbers to you and me). Therefore, no minimum or maximum.
You can sometimes trick Excel by changing it to a time scale axis (Chart
menu > Chart Options > Axes tab). This interprets numbers as dates,
starting with 1 as January 1, 1900. If you change the number format of
the axis to General or something similar, you will see the numerical
values, you'll be able to assign beginning and ending dates (just enter
the numbers you want if Excel insists on displaying dates), and the axis
might behave the way you want. Keep in mind that the columns will now
become limited in width to the space between individually numbered
categories.

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


wendythelwell wrote:

> I am having problems with changing the scale on for example a bar chart
> x axis. When I double click the axis to bring up the Formax Axis menu
> the options to change the scale under the scale tab are not the same as
> the Y axis as the min and max options etc are not available. Has anyone
> else come across this problem and does anyone know how to change the
> scale and set the min and max options.
>
>

[wendythelwell]

Hi Jon

Many thanks for your reply. However, what is further confusing is that seems to work OK on earlier versions of Excel but just not on 2003. However, the good news is that changing the dates - as they were dates on the spreadsheet - to Time scale works so many thanks. I will check with an earlier version of Excel so see if it automatically selected Time scale.

Wendy