There should be a way to do this, but the Microsoft help function isn’t very helpful.
I have a simple line graph. The x-axis is weeks spanning 4+ years. The first data point in the series of weeks happens to be the last week of April, 2010. I want the x-axis labels (and their associated ticks) to be simplified to only 4. Jan Week 1 of 2011, Jan Week 1 of 2012, Jan Week 1 of 2013, and Jan Week 1 of 2014. I don’t want to display any other tick marks or labels except those 4. How do I get Excel to do that? It always wants to place the first tick at the far left edge of the chart, but I want the first tick to be somewhere else, and then the others evenly spaced out…
On the graph, right click on one of the x-axis labels and then select “Format Axis.”
In my version of Excel, that brings up the Axis Options, from which I can adjust:
Minimum
Maximum
Major Unit (in months)
Minor Unit (in months)
I can also set the vertical axis to cross:
Between Dates
At a specific date
At a maximum date
I would think with those options, you can get what you want.
The key is you have to right-click on the axis labels; right-clicking on different parts of the graph brings up different options.
Hopefully this helps.
Unfortunately I don’t see that stuff. I am running Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
Since we both seem to be online at the same time, what DO you see when you right-click on the graph’s x-axis?
You could also try the instructions here:
This is the horizontal axis we’re talking about. When I right click on it and select format axis I see Axis Options. I can adjust the interval between tick marks, interval between labels, label distance from axis, axis type, major tick mark type, minor tick mark type, axis labels, vertical axis crosses, and position axis.
I found this…
To change the axis type to a text or date axis, under Axis Type, click Text axis or Date axis. Text and data points are evenly spaced on a text axis. A date axis displays dates in chronological order at set intervals or base units, such as the number of days, months or years, even if the dates on the worksheet are not in order or in the same base units.
I can set the axis type to date, but I don’t see where to set the base units to days, months or years.