Excel 2010 Bible

Part III: Creating Charts and Graphics

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FIGURE 19.16

Changing the Interval between Labels setting makes labels display horizontally.

When you create a chart, Excel recognizes whether your category axis contains date or time values.

If so, it uses a time-based category axis. Figure 19.17 shows a simple example. Column A contains

dates, and column B contains the values plotted in the column chart. The data consists of values

for only 10 dates, yet Excel created the chart with 30 intervals on the category axis. It recognized

that the category axis values were dates and created an equal-interval scale.

FIGURE 19.17

Excel recognizes dates and creates a time-based category axis.

You can override Excel’s decision to use a time-based category axis by choosing the Text Axis

option for Axis Type. Figure 19.18 shows the chart after making this change. In this case, using a

time-based category axis presents a truer picture of the data.