Excel Chart: White Space Problem

Question

Background: I'm putting together a combination chart: One series is a line, the other is a column graph. The x-axis is dates, while the y-axis is simple numbers.

Issue: As per a supervisor's request, data from previous times and a Target for the data has to be added in, for comparison on the same chart. Before adding those two points in, the bars automatically stretch the entire plot area, and then dynamically update as more data is added to the range. After those two points go in, the whole range is shown with no values in the latter part of the graph, not even on the axes. I wanted to know if there was a way around this. I've tried formatting the words as dates, to no avail, as well as going through the "how to read empty cells" dialog boxes, to no avail. If i change the words to actual dates, the graph goes back to normal.

This is confusing to read, here's some pictures to help clarify what I mean:

Please help!

Answer 1

Have you added the trend-line, or a another line graph to the existing graph(combining).

how is the column formatted, what if you enter the data as mm/dd/yyyy instead of mentioned Sept/Oct?

I would ask you to upload the sample file to any of media share link and provide the link to the uploaded file.

Answer 2

What X and Y data are you using for the added points? Excel is probably trying to fit the axis to the added points, and what it thinks is the new X value range is not what you think it is.

Answer 3

The only difference between the two documents was the addition of the first 2 data points on the x-axis. I'm trying to have the bars stretch the whole chart area, not just the first part. It's a work-related document, so it can't be uploaded to mediashare/anything similar.