X axis label problems...won't display

  • Thread starter Thread starter niccig
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niccig

My x axis labels are very long, up to 70 characters. I wish I could
shorten these, but they have already been published by previous
authors. We have to use what was published.

I can't get the entire text to show. I've tried changing the size of
the font or the text direction. I've also tried resizing the plot
area, but the amount of space allowed for the x-axis labels is fixed.
I've made the plot area very small, and the text is still cut off at
the exact same point when the plot area was larger. In normal view, I
can see the entire text, but when it prints, it's cut off.

Any suggestions? This is driving me nuts!
Thanks
 
My x axis labels are very long, up to 70 characters. I wish I could
shorten these, but they have already been published by previous
authors. We have to use what was published.
Click to expand...
I can't get the entire text to show. I've tried changing the size of
the font or the text direction. I've also tried resizing the plot
area, but the amount of space allowed for the x-axis labels is fixed.
Click to expand...
I've made the plot area very small, and the text is still cut off at
the exact same point when the plot area was larger. In normal view, I
can see the entire text, but when it prints, it's cut off.

Any suggestions? This is driving me nuts!

Annoying isn't it? I'm getting the same thing with y-axis labels on
horizontal bar charts, and when experimenting with Excel chart hacks
like bullet graphs, dot plots etc.

I think you're just going to have to bite the bullet and create a key:
shorten the titles into some sort of mnemonic code, and then place a
table nearby to explain the code, giving the full 70 character
descriptions.
 
Del,
Creating a legend didn't occur to me. But I don't think that will work
for my boss, she wants everything on the chart.

The other options I have found:

I made the text direction be 90 degrees and then had to increase the
offset significantly so the text wouldn't be written over the graph.

I think my final solution will be hiding the x-axis labels and having
a text box in it's place. I read about doing this in an older post
here. That creates it's own problems, 89 textboxes in 6 charts that I
need to link to a particular cell, and then position and embed the
textbox in the chart etc so it doesn't float around. It'll be a lot of
work.

For now, I'm using the text direction approach, as I need to have a
working copy of these charts tomorrow.

Why isn't this problem fixed in Excel? Surely I'm not the only one
that wants to have labels more than 15 characters.

Nicci
 
Creating a legend didn't occur to me. But I don't think that will work
for my boss, she wants everything on the chart.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that 90% of sensible solutions to Excel chart problems
can't be adopted because "my boss wants it exactly like this". It makes
me wonder why bosses don't sack us all and do the work themselves, if
they know so much better about info graphics :-)
I think my final solution will be hiding the x-axis labels and having
a text box in it's place. I read about doing this in an older post
here. That creates it's own problems, 89 textboxes in 6 charts that I
need to link to a particular cell, and then position and embed the
textbox in the chart etc so it doesn't float around. It'll be a lot of
work.
Click to expand...

Consider using the "Camera" tool to copy a linked picture of a
spreadsheet cell range into the chart area. That way you have only one
box to mess with.
 
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