Time scale makes columns too narrow

[George Marshall]

Problem (with Excel 2002 on WinXP):
Trying to make a stacked column chart using weekly data, Excel insists
on spacing out the width between columns, and making each column too
narrow. By comparison, the same exact data with each column being on a
successive day (instead or 7 days) comes out looking good.

Here's a simple example to illustrate the problem:
,4/5/04,4/6/04,4/7/04,4/8/04,4/9/04,4/10/04,4/11/04
Label A,1,2,3,4,5,5,7
Label B,2,4,8,16,32,33,34

Note that the dates are consecutive days. Pull it into a spreadsheet,
select the whole block, and chart it as stacked columns. The columns
are wide, and there is no extra space between them - looks good.

Now copy the block to some other cells, use Series to change the dates
one week apart (I.e., 7 day intervals) and them chart it as above. Now
we have lots of dead space between columns and the columns are very
narrow. In real charts with more data, the columns quickly become so
narrow that the colors can't be seen.

Oh, and if you make one more copy of the data and change the dates to
monthly intervals, it plots nicely again.

I suppose if there were a "Weeks" option in Major Units under Format
Axis, there wouldn't be a problem, but is there some work-around I can
use to get my weekly data to chart with good formatting? I have been
trying everything I can think of in Format Axis - Scale, but nothing
helps.

Any suggestions appreciated.

George Marshall

 

[Nicky]

I had a similar problem with quarterly data, which ed provided
solution for:

http://www.excelforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18421

 

[Jon Peltier]

George -

Right click on the chart, click on the Axes tab, and change the primary
category axis selection to "Category".

- Jon