Can't seem to change the maximum value on the axes...

**chimpsky82** · 01-26-2013, 04:04 PM

Hi all

I've just produced a chart with bins 1, 1.5, ... , 6, comprising 11 values in total. When I create a chart Excel 2007 puts the values 1-11 on the x-axis. I've read in various places (e.g. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...007-chart.html) that going into Format Axis > Axis Options should give one the opportunity to specify the max (and min) values etc. However, the window I get simply doesn't offer this option

, please see the picture below.

Axis Options.jpg

I'd be very helpful for advice on what I'm doing wrong...

Cheers

**chimpsky82** · 01-27-2013, 12:11 AM

I've just found that changing the chart type to Scatter Chart DOES make Minimum and Maximum available, and actually in that case Excel for some reason doesn't convert 1-6 into 1-11, but leaves it at 1-6 (well, the scale goes up to 7 but that can subsequently be adjusted).

Axis Options 2.jpg

The trouble, unfortunately, is that for the purposes of the presentation I have to give (on some research in psycholinguistics) bar charts are really the way to go. I would have thought that these options ought to be available for all kinds of charts... they *are* in this video, which also uses Excel 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLc41-1PQQk

Very confused as to what I may be doing wrong...

**lmp** · 01-27-2013, 12:30 AM

Hello,

in the video that you are referring to, the labels of the X axis get pointed to the cells that contain the numbers. They are still just text labels.

In a column chart, the X axis is either text or dates. Since your data is not dates, and you want to plot decimal values on the X axis, you cannot use the date axis anyway. So, edit the data source for the chart and select the X axis (Category) labels. Text labels will be equally spaced, i.e. the position of the value has no relationship to the numeric data of the value.

You can also use an XY scatter chart and add vertical error bars in the down direction with 100%. Format the error bars until they look like columns in a column chart and then format the data markers with no line and no fill. In an XY chart, the data markers will be placed on a position on the X axis that represent their numeric value.

**chimpsky82** · 01-27-2013, 07:40 AM

Many thanks for your reply LMP. Trying to make sure I understand your suggestion correctly: are you saying that I should somehow edit the Bins/Frequency table (my data source) in such a way that decimal values will be accepted? If so, how would I go about this?

I've just found that in another paper I gave on a similar topic I somehow did manage to get bar charts to display decimal values, see Histogram with decimal values on x axis.jpg, which also shows the options I get when selecting the axis. If only I could remember how I managed this... It definitely was not by manipulating a scatter chart.

**chimpsky82** · 01-27-2013, 08:33 AM

Got it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mha786lTSTM

I suspect the trouble was that I was using a "column chart" which is defined differently than a "histogram" by Excel.

Hope this may be useful to some other forum members as well