Excel 2019 Bible

Chapter 21: Using Advanced Charting Techniques

21

The actual scale you use depends on the situation. There are no hard-and-fast rules regard-

ing setting scale values, except that you shouldn’t misrepresent data by manipulating the

chart to prove a point that doesn’t exist.

If you’re preparing several charts that use similarly scaled data, keeping the bounds the same is a good idea so that
the charts can be compared more easily.

Another option in the Format Axis task pane is Values in Reverse Order. The left chart in

Figure 21.11 uses default axis settings. The right chart uses the Values in Reverse Order

option, which reverses the scale’s direction. Notice that the category axis is at the top. If

you would prefer that it remain at the bottom of the chart, select the Maximum Axis Value

option for the Horizontal Axis Crosses setting.

FIGURE 21.11

The right chart uses the Values in Reverse Order option

If the values to be plotted cover a large numerical range, you may want to use a loga-

rithmic scale for the value axis. A log scale is most often used for scientific applications.

Figure 21.12 shows two charts. The top chart uses a standard scale, and the bottom chart

uses a logarithmic scale.

For a logarithmic scale, the Base setting is 10, so each scale value in the chart is 10 times greater than the one
below it. Increasing the major unit to 100 results in a scale in which each tick mark value is 100 times greater than
the one below it. You can specify a base value between 2 and 1,000.

This workbook, log scale.xlsx, is available on this book’s website at http://www.wiley.com/go/

excel2019bible.