Formatting series

[Pichi222]

I am doing several simple vertical bar charts in office and need
assistance on series formatting and how this affects the x-axis view. I
am placing several years worth of data on one chart, one column in the
datasheet for each year. Each year has a varying number of buildings -
one year had two, another four, another six. These appear on the chart
correctly, but in the sections for the years with less buildings (and
bars) there is a huge amount of open Floor space until the next
section. The section with the most buildings (seven) seems to dictate
the width and spacing of the x-axis tick marks - each section equals
the width of seven bars no matter how many bars are in each.

What I want to do is get rid of the empty space and adjust the tick
marks accordingly - make them unequal as needed. I don't want to use
the "empty cells plotted as zero" option because the empty cells
represent no entries and should be null. Adjusting the Format Axis
-Scale tab doesn't seem to be working either. Do I need to "ungroup"
and if so how to I do this - Help?

 

[Sandy]

To adjust space between bars:

Double click on a bar
In the Format Data Series dialog box select the Options tab
Adjust overlap and gap width here

To adjust tick marks:
Double click on the axis
In the Format Axis dialog box (opens to Patterns tab), the options on the
right allow you to adjust tick marks

 

[Pichi222]

Thanks Sandy but tried these already. The Options tab in the Format
Series box gives me three choices to adjust: Gap Depth, Gap Width, and
Chart Depth - there is no "Overlap" option. I've tried playing with all
of them with no response, the empty floor space remains. Ditto to the
Patterns tab in the Format Axis box - this only allows me to change the
appearance of the major or minor tick marks (outside, inside, etc.), or
adjust the appearance and height of the tick mark label itself (close
to axis, etc).

My problem has something to do with the way I have my datasheet set up.
My data is obviously graphed as a series, with the largest year having
seven entries, hence the program is spacing all years/sections at the
width of seven entries even though some years only have 2, 3 entries
etc. This is creating a ton of empty/open floor space. I'm wondering if
I need to Ungroup everything of it there's another trick I can use to
adjust the tick marks.
Can someone tell me how to ungroup?

 

[Sandy]

Do you have any blank columns or rows in your spreadsheet. If so, delete
them. Otherwise, you can alway try the ungroup approach.

 

[Pichi222]

No blank columns or rows. Just blank cells in some of the columns with
fewer entries - is there a way to delete these or note them so that
they don't show up as part of the series - PPT is looking at these
blank cells as part of the series and giving them floor space as they
would if an actual column were there. They're taking the longest
series/year/column (7 entries/bars on the chart) and using it as the
default - this is want I want to correct.

Can anyone tell me how to ungroup the data or the bars on the chart?
The "ungroup" option in my drawing toolbar isn't available (greyed out)
when I go to use it. Thanks -