Help! I need to draw a line on a chart that is horizontal - - in old Excel,
the SHIFT key could be used to "snap to" the horizontal, but in Excel 2007,
it does not work and it is driving me crazy!

Not sure what you mean by 'snap to'
Holding SHIFT while drawing the line will keep it horizontal but I cannot
recall in Excel2003 that you were able to fix a line that you had already
drawn - my PC will XL2003 is out of commission today so I cannot confirm
this.

I have just experimented with XL2007 : holding SHIFT does indeed keep the
line horizontal
Try again on a new worksheet and let us know the result
best wishes
--
Bernard Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme

"ExcelGeek75" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0F679D41-5F70-4F0E-BFE3-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Help! I need to draw a line on a chart that is horizontal - - in old
> Excel,
> the SHIFT key could be used to "snap to" the horizontal, but in Excel
> 2007,
> it does not work and it is driving me crazy!

I am not able to draw a line on a XL2007 chart in the 1st place.
I have the chart as a sheet. When I am view that chart sheet, the
illustrations menu (which contains shapes) is grayed out. What am I missing?

"Bernard Liengme" wrote:

> Not sure what you mean by 'snap to'
> Holding SHIFT while drawing the line will keep it horizontal but I cannot
> recall in Excel2003 that you were able to fix a line that you had already
> drawn - my PC will XL2003 is out of commission today so I cannot confirm
> this.
>
> I have just experimented with XL2007 : holding SHIFT does indeed keep the
> line horizontal
> Try again on a new worksheet and let us know the result
> best wishes
> --
> Bernard Liengme
> Microsoft Excel MVP
> http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
>
> "ExcelGeek75" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:0F679D41-5F70-4F0E-BFE3-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Help! I need to draw a line on a chart that is horizontal - - in old
> > Excel,
> > the SHIFT key could be used to "snap to" the horizontal, but in Excel
> > 2007,
> > it does not work and it is driving me crazy!
>
> .
>

Open the Insert tab
Click the chart
On the Insert tab; click Shapes, select one item for the Lines gallery
Drag the mouse to draw line
This is how I always do it.
best wishes
--
Bernard Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme

"BoBF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3C4E979F-5B8C-4499-A62E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I am not able to draw a line on a XL2007 chart in the 1st place.
> I have the chart as a sheet. When I am view that chart sheet, the
> illustrations menu (which contains shapes) is grayed out. What am I
> missing?
>
> "Bernard Liengme" wrote:
>
>> Not sure what you mean by 'snap to'
>> Holding SHIFT while drawing the line will keep it horizontal but I cannot
>> recall in Excel2003 that you were able to fix a line that you had already
>> drawn - my PC will XL2003 is out of commission today so I cannot confirm
>> this.
>>
>> I have just experimented with XL2007 : holding SHIFT does indeed keep the
>> line horizontal
>> Try again on a new worksheet and let us know the result
>> best wishes
>> --
>> Bernard Liengme
>> Microsoft Excel MVP
>> http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
>>
>> "ExcelGeek75" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:0F679D41-5F70-4F0E-BFE3-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Help! I need to draw a line on a chart that is horizontal - - in old
>> > Excel,
>> > the SHIFT key could be used to "snap to" the horizontal, but in Excel
>> > 2007,
>> > it does not work and it is driving me crazy!
>>
>> .
>>

Holding Shift does snap to 45 degree angles, including horizontal.

To draw on a chart sheet, select the chart as well as switching to the
sheet.

BUT drawing over you chart this way is pretty clunky - what if your
chart is updated, your data changes and the axis rescales, all those
sorts of forseeable events?
Why not plot an extra series with two points to draw the line for you?
Make it a line chart, move it to the secondary axis if necessary and
even 'strecth' it to the sides of the plot area (by adding then
formatting the secondary horizontal axis to show vertical axes at the
tick marks instead of between them)

Hope this helps
Adam

On 10/03/2010 14:56, ExcelGeek75 wrote:
> Help! I need to draw a line on a chart that is horizontal - - in old Excel,
> the SHIFT key could be used to "snap to" the horizontal, but in Excel 2007,
> it does not work and it is driving me crazy!