Cannot add data as labels for the horizontal (category) axis

[Warren Tranquada]

This has got to be a bug. Hopefully this will be fixed on the next update. I wasted over an hour figuring this out. Even after reading the posts above it took me 15 minutes to figure out what to do. This used to be so easy in other versions of Excel.

 

[Kristy]

Thanks Drdul - I wasted way too much time before I got to your post. I can't believe that this is an acceptable solution to Microsoft - this is so counter productive! Errgh.

 

[Nolen]

Just so I'm clear... in order to label items on the category axis, I HAVE TO type (or paste) a cell range in the formula bar, between those two empty commas, when the chart is selected?

I've been using excel since 1.05 and THAT was better than this lot!

 

[Frank Byrne]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that wasted hours over this x axis issue. I finally got my answer from reading the messages above, and when I got back to Excel to put it into practice, it crashed....again. And that was about 1 hour AFTER I had downloaded all the software updates. I think I am going to re-install the old Excel, and hope that none of my colleagues send me graphs prepared on the 2008 version (xlsx). I wonder if their graphs will have properly labeled x-axes!!!!

 

[Aurens]

All you folks who have explained the unexplainable, let me add my two cents. It's a bug, not a feature. If I select xy-scatter chart, then I have full access to the X axis labels which I define, as in the earlier Excel, by selecting a column of labels. Everything works like it should, and the chart data menu includes the X axis.

However, switch to a line chart and the X axis is lost. I am told that switching from scatter to area works also.

Again, it's a but, not a feature. Try a different form of chart, like I did (line to scatter) and it might work for you. Meanwhile, come next week, I'll call MS to explain it to them.

 

[Anthony Albert]

Let me add my voice to the discussion of how ridiculously difficult it is to change the data displayed on the x-axis. I just recently began switching over from Excel for Windows to the Mac version. I just purchased Office 2008 for Mac, but will probably go back to the Windows version. I can't continue wasting as much time as I did in trying to change the data displayed. I have also found the "Help" to be next to worthless.

 

[Anthony Albert]

Sorry to be so ignorant, but where does one find the "floating formula bar" that you mentioned?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Sorry to be so ignorant, but where does one find the "floating formula bar"
that you mentioned?

Click the toolbox icon near the center of the toolbar. Then select your
chart and look at the chart formatting section.

 

[Carson Snipes]

Thank you all for this information. I have a very unique spreadsheet, however, and I cannot rearange it in any way that I can see to be put into a chart series as described above because 9 times out of 10 I need to designate my x-axis values. So my only hope is that the patch or fix for this will happen soon. Does anyone have any idea as to when this problem is going to be fixed?

 

[David Hartzok]

I have been using Excel (MAC) since it's inception in 1986. Charts were always a no-brainer; very intuitive. Today I tried to do the simplest of charts and encountered this same idiotic issue of having the x-axis points not be data but merely a count of the data points (1,2,3,...). I was going to upgrade but what would be the point if the software is less useful?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I have been using Excel (MAC) since it's inception in 1986. Charts were always
a no-brainer; very intuitive. Today I tried to do the simplest of charts and
encountered this same idiotic issue of having the x-axis points not be data
but merely a count of the data points (1,2,3,...). I was going to upgrade but
what would be the point if the software is less useful?

You can fix this pretty easily. Build the chart. Select the chart, and then
click on a data point so the series formula shows in the formula bar. Then
edit the formula by typing the range of the x axis values between the double
commas in the formula.

 

[Aurens]

I have been using Excel (MAC) since it's inception in 1986. Charts were always
a no-brainer; very intuitive. Today I tried to do the simplest of charts and
encountered this same idiotic issue of having the x-axis points not be data
but merely a count of the data points (1,2,3,...). I was going to upgrade but
what would be the point if the software is less useful?

You can fix this pretty easily. Build the chart. Select the chart, and then
click on a data point so the series formula shows in the formula bar. Then
edit the formula by typing the range of the x axis values between the double
commas in the formula.
[/QUOTE]
I add date-related data to my chart at irregular intervals. Which is why I need to be able to specify and respecify the column that contains the dates (x-axis) corresponding to the data.

The best fix is for MS to fix what is an obvious bug. For now, I am able to use the scattershot form, which works correctly, because it can be made to look like lines.

 

[vernacular55]

Thanks to all you fellow users of the 2008 Excel product for helping me understand (i) I'm not a total idiot for being unable to generate the category values I want on a bar graph, and (ii) sollutions for this problem. Yes, I can do it. But why, why, why, is such a user-unfriendly 'feature' even in it? And, is it others' perception too that, as the product gets more difficult to use, the Help function gets less helpful?