Lock dimensions of plot area of dynamic chart

**Stefan1983** · 09-28-2012, 07:39 AM

Hello,

I'm having a dynamic chart with an equally dynamic Y-axis. The data which I'm plotting are very much different values. As a result, the plot area keeps changing in its width according to the axes labels: Wider when the labels are smaller and more narrow when the labels are long.

Narrow_plot_area.PNG Wide_plot_area.PNG

Is there a way to lock the plot area or the X-axis from changing? The charts keeps changing its dimensions when a user changes the metrics.

Thank you.

**Andy Pope** · 09-28-2012, 08:27 AM

You can not lock the plot area position.

You would need to use code to size and position plotarea. This is complicated by the fact that the plotarea.insideleft value is read-only.
You need to modify the .Left property of the plotarea and monitor the InsideLeft property until it is in, or close to, the required position.

**MrShorty** · 09-28-2012, 08:39 AM

Since the plot area resizes based on the length of the y axis label, you might try adjusting the number format of the axis labels to be a constant width.

I know everybody but us scientific/engineering folks despise scientific notation, but it is a good way to fit any number into a constant width. So a format code of 0.00E+0 would display number to 3 sig figs and the width of the display would never change (unless your number was greater than 1E10 or smaller than 1E-10).

A ? in the format code can be used to reserve spaces and keep a number field a constant width. So a format code of ?????0.00 will reserve the "leading spaces" and try to keep the number field a constant width.