monthly separation tick marks on x-axis

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I'm plotting a number of data series on an x-y scatter chart. Values are
recorded daily over an 18 month period and are plotted against time on the
x-axis. To make the graph look neat I want to place tick marks at monthly
intervals at the first of each month. Because the number of days in the
month varies it is not possible to select an appropriate major unit in the
format axis box. As a result, if I select for example 31 as the major unit
then the monthly tick marks progressively move to a later date in the month -
starting from 01 August 05 and by March 07 my tick mark is placed at the
13th. Is there anyway to overcome this? Thanks.
 
Sure there is. What I'd do is create a series like this:

X Y
A1: 1/1/2007 0 <~~~or whatever your minimum value is for the chart
A2: =date(year(a1),month(A1)+1,day(a1)) 0

COPY DOWN

Create another series for your chart using these values.
Put Y error bars on the series at the size you need.

Use something like Rob Bovey's XYChart Labeler (www.appspro.com) to put
labels on this series. You labels could be the X part of your series.

Change the series marker to none.

It's kludgy, but it works.
 
This is where a Line chart is nicer than an XY chart. Create a line chart
with your data, then double click the X axis, click on the Scale tab, choose
Days as your Base Unit, 1 Month as your Major Unit, and the first of any
relevant month as the Minimum.

- Jon
 
Barb, Kelly

Thanks. This method at first appears a bit cumbersome but is actually very
straight forward. Problem solved.

But...after however many versions of excel, why does it still fail to be
able to perform so many desirable functions in a simple way via the chart
wizzard? If I want to generate charts with different chart types for
different series, multiple y-axes etc it seems that there are a lot of
counter-intuitive things going on. Please sort it out microsoft!

Thanks again all for the useful advice.

Rab
 
But...after however many versions of excel, why does it still fail to be
able to perform so many desirable functions in a simple way via the chart
wizzard? If I want to generate charts with different chart types for
different series, multiple y-axes etc it seems that there are a lot of
counter-intuitive things going on. Please sort it out microsoft!
Click to expand...

I sympathise, but remember that Excel is not a graphing program, it's a
spreadsheet. Once upon a time, there were graphing programs that were
sold separately, with names like Harvard Graph and Lotus Freelance, but
the demand doesn't seem to have been there for these programs to be
developed. The business market seems to be satisfied with a stunted
little graphing facility embedded in a spreadsheet.

(and yet the same big business customers demand that that little
graphing facility must have fancy metallic-look visual effects. go
figure.)
 
Barb, Kelly

Thanks. This method at first appears a bit cumbersome but is actually very
straight forward. Problem solved.

But...after however many versions of excel, why does it still fail to be
able to perform so many desirable functions in a simple way via the chart
wizzard? If I want to generate charts with different chart types for
different series, multiple y-axes etc it seems that there are a lot of
counter-intuitive things going on. Please sort it out microsoft!

Thanks again all for the useful advice.

Rab







- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Try Multiple-Y Axes for Excel: www.OfficeExpander.com
There is a free demo program.
-Dave
 
Although it's a stunted little graphing facility, it has great flexibility,
both in terms of combination charts which use additional series to achieve
certain functionality as well as programmability to do it repeatedly and
effortlessly. Excel allows you to hack together features that you would
otherwise need to purchase an expensive specialized software package for,
and that package wouldn't do all the other things that a spreadsheet can do.

- Jon
 
Jon Peltier said:
This is where a Line chart is nicer than an XY chart. Create a line chart
with your data, then double click the X axis, click on the Scale tab, choose
Days as your Base Unit, 1 Month as your Major Unit, and the first of any
relevant month as the Minimum.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com
_______
Click to expand...
 
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