Why would you want to change the base unit of charts?

[squebler]

Hello, I'm a software developer, and I'm working on a charting application that uses Office charts. I'm wondering what are some of the main reasons people change the base unit from the default, and how common that is.

Some reasons I've identified on my own:

• You're comparing different monthly metrics, but they could be recorded on different days of the month.
• Get a zoomed-out view.
• Compare the max value of each month.

[Andy Pope]

What do you mean by Base Units?

Is it the Log scale or Display Units (Millions, thousands etc) or something else.

[squebler]

Base unit can be found on the x-axis format dialog. You can set it to Days, Months, or years. But only for date-based charts.

[Andy Pope]

I would say not common. Can't say I have used it.

Changing the base unit does not aggregate the data so unless the user address that problem showing all values from a given period will, as you say, only show the max.