SIMPLE LINE CHART/GRAPH DEFINING AXIS VALUES

Copper Contributor

I am not a 'Pro' user of EXCEL but I have had a lot of experience with it (legacy-wise that is)... Working with charts and graphs used to be easy for me. With the latest Office 365 subscription, it feels a lot different and not nearly as "intuitive" as I remember.

 

The issue I am having has to do with the Vertical and Horizontal axis formatting. I seem to recall the entries/values defaulted to the contents of the referenced cells. In this newer version, the default seems to default with Percentages 0% to 100% which I assume is based on the cell contents. I cannot see where to change that to relate to the values in the referenced cells. I am plotting a list of numbers against a year's value 2010 - 2020 for example. That might be the horizontal values while the vertical could be adjusted to 1000 to 3000 for example with graph data containing random values which might be 1500 through 2500. This used to be "automatic" in older 'legacy' versions of EXCEL where you would select your data and insert the graph which would start as what you were looking for. Then you could mess around with the Axis formats to stretch or compress the data range to suit your presentation needs. A normally very basic and super easy process. Now, I am stuck with 0% - 100% based on the contents of the cells. In the above example where data was random between 1500 and 2500, the 100% might relate to 2500 or maybe slightly higher. I am getting pretty old for this (!) and embarrassed to have to ask.

DaveR KB7GP

6 Replies

@KB7GP 

Your description makes me think that you have selected one of the "100% Stacked" chart types, such as "100% Stacked Column", "100% Stacked Bar" or "100% Stacked Line":

HansVogelaar_0-1681724583465.png

Such charts always have a y-axis that goes from 0% to 100%.

Try changing the chart type to one of the Clustered types:

HansVogelaar_1-1681724718170.png

Thank you! That seems to do it. I guess it pays to actually 'read' the graph description and not just select the icon.

I have seen graphs that have two scales on the Left in the primary as well as a secondary on the Right side. Is this possible with EXCEL?
DaveR

@KB7GP 

If your chart has multiple series, you can specify that one or more of them will be displayed on a secondary axis.

To do so: double-click a series on the chart. This will activate the Format Data Series task pane:

HansVogelaar_0-1681767031033.png

I know that one and today I discovered that I could move that axis all the way to the left so that it joins the primary axis. This leaves no labeling on the right side of the chard. So, I guess my question might be to ask if there is a possibility of a third or more axis labels.

@KB7GP 

No, a chart can only have one primary value axis and one secondary value axis. That's it.

@Hans Vogelaar 

Thank you for that clarification.

DaveR