Time(X) Axis Scale in 97

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mary
  • Start date Start date
M

Mary

Hello,
I am using Excel 97. I updated a line chart by one cell. My x axis was
previously a Time (x) axis scale, showing ticks every 6 months: 1/00, 7/00,
1/01, etc. When I add one cell to the Source Data, Series, Category (x) axis
label (to match the additional one cell value in the Values box above it), it
throws my whole x axis off, changing it to every 3 months. When I double
click on this x axis, I then see the menu Category (x) axis scale, and cannot
get back to the Time (x) axis scale menu. How do I get back to the Time (x)
axis scale menu? Thank you in advance for helping me on a Friday afternoon!!!
 
Hi Mary,

We are now in 2008, Excel 97 came out in 1996, I don't expect many of us
have this version on our machines, there are just soooo..... many
enhancements since then.

But you can try something like this, I can't test for the reason mentioned
above, with the chart selected choose Chart, Chart Options, and click the
Axis tab and see if you can set the axis back to timescale.

No guarentees though...
 
I doubt the version has anything to do with it. Excel 97 and Excel 2003 are
much more alike than Excel 2003 and Excel 2007, and in any case, my initial
response is the same.

I suspect that the added cell is not a true numerical date, but text that
appears as a date to us humans, and which Excel interprets as text. This
prevents Excel from properly treating the cell as a date.

- Jon
 
Hay Jon,

Don't you have anything better to do on a Friday night? My excuse is I'm
married. Speaking of marriage, Marsha, who I think you met at the last
Summit, is waiting for the next one, she likes the parties, and dinners out.
 
We are now in 2008, Excel 97 came out in 1996, I don't expect many of us
have this version on our machines, there are just soooo..... many
enhancements since then.
Click to expand...

I have Excel 97, and there isn't a graph available in 2003 or 2007 I
haven't been able to make so far. And there are some data graphics I can
do in 97 you can't do in 2007, like thematic maps (they eventually
removed the dog-in-a-manger app from Excel and now sell a standalone
Maps product).

Which is a bit of an indictment of Microsoft's development of Charting:
they should be offering dot plots and panel charts by now at the very
least, instead of messing with art department effects. A dot plot is
only to a Line Chart what a Bar Chart is to a Column chart, for heaven's
sake. In fact they should be offering all their category X axis chart
types in sideways form as a standard option, area charts as well.

Maybe they ought to think about a standalone graphing application they
can charge extra for? In an ideal world, the logical thing would be for
a third party company to develop such a product, but the MS giant has a
chilling effect: nobody wants to prove the market only to have MS say
"thanks, we'll take that now".
 
I've got pretty much the same excuse, but with kids. After running around
all day, it often isn't until evenings when I can concentrate on work. I
solved a bunch of issues I was having with one project last night, then
spent an hour on the newsgroups.

- Jon
 
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