How do I change the scale on the y axis to letters?

[Guest]

I wish to change the Y axis scale on an Excel line graph from numbers to
letters. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Jon Peltier]

You can hide the default axis labels and add a series along the Y axis that
has the desired text as data point labels.

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ArbitraryAxis.html
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/Y_CategoryAxis.html

- Jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply but I think I need more help! On my y axis I have the
numbers from 10 upto 58 in increments of 6. I have information plotted on
the graph that uses these numbers.

I seem to be unable to follow your advice!

I would like to change these numbers to letters to E, D, C, B, A and A*. I
have tried playing around with the series but cannot get anything sensible.
The x axis runs from 14 to 33.

Any ideas?

 

[Jon Peltier]

You need points along the Y axis (X=14, the minimum, right? or 0.5 if X is a
category axis, but I hope from your description that it isn't). The points
occur at Y = 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58, 64, 70, 76, 82, 88, 94,
100. Which of these need a letter? Suppose this covers it:

X Y Letter
14 40 E
14 52 D
14 64 C
14 76 B
14 88 A
14 100 A*

Use the X and Y columns to add a series (copy, select chart, Edit menu >
Paste Special, New series), convert the series to an XY if necessary (select
the series, Chart menu > Chart Type > XY markers only). Change the markers
to cross (+), use one of these utilities to apply labels from the Letter
column to the added series:

Rob Bovey's Chart Labeler, http://appspro.com
John Walkenbach's Chart Tools, http://j-walk.com

Hide the regular axis labels (double click > Patterns tab > Axis Tick Labels
= None).

- Jon