Year series shows wrong in chart

[bevinb]

Hi all : using Excel 2003, I have what should not even be a problem
that I cannot solve. I have a series of years in a column, 1970-2006
to be exact, and these are the labels for my x axis. When I insert
chart this appears as 1,2,3,...instead of 1970, 1971, etc. It doesn't
matter how I format that column, text, general, custom, nothing works.
Why is it not just giving me the data in the format that is actually
there and how can I get it?

thanks for any help

Bevin B.

 

[Guest]

Try first entering the dates as dates. To check to make sure they're entered
as dates, after entering the data click within a cell that has a date and
then go to

Format -> Cells -> Number.

The category should appear as "date".

Then, go to

Chart -> Chart Options -> Primary Axis

The Category X Axis should be checked. Click the "Category" option button.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Is this an XY chart? If the x values (even one of them) is text that looks
like a number, it will cause Excel to ignore the values and use 1, 2, 3.

- Jon