Excel Graphs - Displaying x and y axis values

Factual Questions
1

I have written an Excel spreadsheet which calculates the exponential decay of radioactive substances. That was easy compared to getting the thing to graph properly. I want it to display 1 curve (an exponential decay). Actually, I am displaying the values as a bar graph (or histogram), which still illustrates the decay nicely.

The data is ALL there for the graph to use. Ten values of radioactivity (y-axis) and ten values of time (x-axis).
The graph displays properly as do the y-axis values.
However, the x-axis values don’t show up at all OR they are displayed as data point values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc - big help there huh?

I do not see why this should be such a problem. I don’t see why the math would create a problem. Basically, I am just trying to plot changing values (y-axis) against time (x-axis). I thought this would be a very simple thing to do. This must be one of the most popular type of graphs. For example, a child’s height (y-axis) over a period of time (x-axis). So, why aren’t those x-values showing up at the bottom of the graph?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

2

right-click on the chart, select “chart options”, go to **Axes ** tab, make sure the check box **Category (X) axis ** is checked.

3

I was able to do what I think you are trying to do on the version of Excel I have by going to the “Source Data” option in the “Chart” menu and highlighting the desired X axis values in the “Category (X axis labels)” box.

On preview I see that clicking and unclicking the option Peter Morris suggests makes these labels appear and go away. So maybe you need to do both.

4

Peter Morris and Laughing Langomorph

Thanks to both of you for the help.
I think we’d agree that those Excel chart options are not organized very well.
Thanks again.

5

Yes, I would not say they are intuitive.

If I am trying to get some effect on an Excel chart that I don’t know how to do I basically highlight the relevant data and keep clicking and unclicking various options in the Charts menu until I get what I want.

Problems often arise because Excel wants to treat data as labels, or labels as data. But all in all I have found it to be extremely useful in my job.