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I am needing to draw line graphs to display figures for Advanced Higher (Scottish A Level Equivalent) Chemistry project using Excel 2007. However, the values along the x-axis will not space out properly and I can't find how to make it so they will.
Initially, the data (volume) increases by 2.0cm^3 each time, then it increases by 0.2cm^3 and finally by 1.0cm^3 each time. This is how the x axis on the graph looks like:
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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 18.2 18.4 18.6 18.8 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 etc.
But I need it to look like:
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0 2 3 4 6 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 etc.
It is quite important that it looks like the latter since it is for a science exam and they'll be rather strict on that type of error.
Sorry if I've been unclear, I've tried to explain it best as possible...
Thanks!
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Answer accepted by question author
Click on the X axis.
Activate the layout tab of the ribbon.
Click Format selection.
Under Axis type, select the confusingly named "Date axis" option.
Specify the Major Unit if needed.
Click Close.
In general, using an XY (scatter) chart will use proper values for the x-axis and space them accordingly.
If you use a line chart it expects categories which are arbitrary, so a, b, c is no different from 1, 4, 19 and it does not space them according to their value.
The date axis trick forces Excel to treat these as proper values, since it expects time to flow at a constant rate (except if you use Excel inside a black hole, presumably...)
I am having problems with dates for a chart on the x axis. Because of the date it will only use lines for my column chart. Can't figure out how to make columns wider in the chart. I only have 15 lines of data. It is spacing it by days. But when I change it to months. It will only show the highest number at that month. I have 2 days in the month that have a number linked to. Can you help me figure out what I need to do.
Brilliant mate, thanks very much :)