Properly formatting Dates on the X axis

X-Y Scatter line chart.
When using daily dates on the X-axis (eg equity price chart) how can
you get the axis labels to just show the 1st of every month. Also what
is the best way to show vertical grid lines corresponding to the first
of every month.

Secondly, I am using a snap-to-point Cross-hair cursor (Thank-you JP)
and as I move it around the chart, the formats on the X axis Change
from 02/12/03 to 12/02/2003. I have the X-Axis number formats fixed at
dd/mm/yy and the alignment pointing downwards, but this means the
whole chart jiggles up and down by two character space in a manner I
find gives me a head-ache. Any ideas ?
Thank you for your help.
Regards,
Robert Harley.

Robert -

You can achieve the first objective if you make a Line chart, with a
Time-Scale axis (Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab > Category Axis >
Time Scale option). Double click the axis, and on the scale tab, set
Base Unit to Days, Major Unit to 1 Month, and Minimum to the first of
any month. Give yourself major gridlines too. This gives you a space
for every day, including weekends, and a lot of people don't like this.
On an XY Scatter chart, you can't do this unless you set up a custom X
axis using a dummy series. Here's a link with a technique you can try:

http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier...es.html#ArbAxis

Point 2: I don't know why the number formats would be changing like that.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

Robert Harley wrote:

> X-Y Scatter line chart.
> When using daily dates on the X-axis (eg equity price chart) how can
> you get the axis labels to just show the 1st of every month. Also what
> is the best way to show vertical grid lines corresponding to the first
> of every month.
>
> Secondly, I am using a snap-to-point Cross-hair cursor (Thank-you JP)
> and as I move it around the chart, the formats on the X axis Change
> from 02/12/03 to 12/02/2003. I have the X-Axis number formats fixed at
> dd/mm/yy and the alignment pointing downwards, but this means the
> whole chart jiggles up and down by two character space in a manner I
> find gives me a head-ache. Any ideas ?
> Thank you for your help.
> Regards,
> Robert Harley.