xy-scatter-labels disappear when x-axis is changed into time-axis (XL07)

[Holger Gerths]

Dear group,

who knows a workaround for the effect that labels of xy-scatter series
disappear when the x-axis is changed into time-axis?
I already know workarounds without using time-axis.
My Excel is 2007 SP1.

Thanks in advance,
Holger.

 

[Jon Peltier]

I cannot reproduce this error. Could you describe in more detail what you
started with and what you changed to.

Are you using Office 2007 SP1?

- Jon

 

[Holger Gerths]

Yes, I am using Excel 2007 SP1 German.

This example is showing the matter:
http://itbuero.gerths.de/download/columns_2007.xlsx

The Series "legend" is currently on primary axis, which is a time axis - and
it has datalabels.
They become visible when putting the serien on secondary axis.

I can generally reproduce that xy scatter loose visibility of datalabels
when they are combined with time-axis.
Maybe this is a problem of the german language version.
MS-Support told me from language-specific bugs in combination with
not-refreshing cameras.
Maybe it works on other language. Please tell me.

Thanks a lot,
Holger.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Wait until the series is on the secondary axis before you apply the labels.

The category axis is a category type, not a date (time) type. However, since
you've removed it from the chart, you can't make use of any of the
properties of the axis. Why not use a regular category axis, with month
names as category labels? This is much easier to create and to maintain.

- Jon

 

[Holger Gerths]

Dear Jon,

I use time-axis to provide dynamic margins left and right in
chart-templates.
But I think, it's better to solve this in 2007 with excel-names and
Offset(),
because scatters cannot be moved between time-tickmarks in 2007.
What do you think about?

Thanks, Holger.

 

[Jon Peltier]

I'm not sure what you mean by this:

"because scatters cannot be moved between time-tickmarks in 2007"

- Jon

 

[Holger Gerths]

Dear Jon,

using a text-axis, you can place an (xy)scatter everywhere on the x-axis.
You can place it somewhere between categories with a
non-integer-x-coordinate e.g.1.5.
Using a time-axis, in <=2003 it was also possible to place a scatter
everywhere between 2 days or months.
With 2007, scatters can be placed only on whole discrete values, exactly on
one day or month, not between.

Holger.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Hmm, I do this all the time, and I recall reporting this as broken during
2007 beta testing. I don't use 2007 much other than to look for bugs, so I
had forgotten this issue. Most line-XY charts I've done have had
category-type X axes, so I wasn't reminded of this. I guess I'll report it
again, see what's going on.

You can, of course, put the XY series on the secondary axis, and match the
scales of the two X axes. But isn't that a pain?

- Jon

 

[Holger Gerths]

Dear Jon,

yes, I can put the scatter on secondary text-axis.
But if I make secondary axis invisible, it inherits the behavior of primary
time-axis.
In this case I put a complete second transparent chart over the first one.
Then I have to translate the x-coordinates from dynamic axis to a fixed one.
But I'm glad to have something working...

Reporting this "feature" is a very good idea.

Thanks, Holger.