When you know what to expect, creating charts in Excel is not that difficult. There is an X-axis and a Y-axis. The former is horizontal, and the latter is vertical. The categories on the horizontal X-axis change when you change it. You can also change its scale for a better view.
- Right-click on the axis whose scale you want to change. Excel displays a Context menu for the axis.
- Choose Format Axis from the Context menu. …
- Make sure the Scale tab is selected. …
- Adjust the scale settings, as desired.
- Click on OK.
Why is it important to change the scale on an Excel graph?
When a graph’s scale is too small or large to properly display all of the bars on its X or Y-axis, it can be crucial to change it. The horizontal axis, or X-axis, displays text information. The vertical axis, or Y-axis, shows the numerical information. Excel calculates the minimum and maximum scale values for the numerical data automatically, but occasionally modifying the scale can improve the readability of the graph for those who are viewing the graph’s data.
The X-axis would display the names of the genres and the Y-axis would display the amounts, for instance, if you were displaying the net earnings of various book genres. The user can adjust the graph’s scale to display the necessary numbers if it doesn’t automatically display them in a way that they prefer, making the data easier to see and comprehend.
What is an Excel graph?
An Excel graph is a chart that displays the data of the user. When giving presentations, some people include graphs to help explain a lot of numbers on a workbook. Graphs can be an effective visual aid for comparing data and for quickly displaying the totals of some workbook data. When using Excel, you can select from a wide range of graphs, including:
How to change the scale on an Excel graph
The basic steps for altering the scale on an Excel graph are as follows:
1. Determine what needs to be changed
Choosing what you want to change is the first step in changing the scale on your graph. The graph that follows was created by a book editor to show the total sales for each genre for each month of the year. Currently, the vertical axis shows a range of monetary values from 0 to $500,000. They want to change the scale of the Y-axis to more accurately reflect her data because none of the genres earned more than $250,000 each month. Here is an illustration of how the Y-axis currently appears:
$500,000$400,000$300,000$200,000$100,000$0### 2. Make changes to the “Bounds”
Click on the axis you want to scale after deciding what you’d like to change. In this case, the user will click on the data to change the information on the Y-axis. After clicking on it, a drop-down menu appears. They’ll click the “Axis Options” button after selecting “Format Axis.” From there, they can alter the “Bounds,” which specify the numbers at the beginning and end of the axis. The bounds in the aforementioned example start at $0 and go all the way to $500,000. Instead, the user prefers that the axis end at $300,000.
They do this by setting the maximum to “$300,000” in the “Bounds” section of the “Axis Options” menu. To more accurately represent the sales of each genre, the numbers on the vertical axis will eventually represent $0 to $300,000 when they’re finished.
3. Make changes to the “Units”
You can modify the “Units” after modifying the “Bounds” of the axis, which alters the quantity of units on the vertical axis. Each unit on the Y-axis in the current example stands for $100,000 increments, such as “$300,000” and “200,000.” The user wants to switch them to $50,000 increments instead. They can change the scale while in the “Axis Options” menu by deleting the current $100,000 increments and entering $50,000 in their place. When finished, they can press enter, and the graph’s scale will appear as in the example below:
$300,000$250,000$200,000$150,000$100,000$50,000$0## Excel tips when creating graphs
You can use the following advice to make Excel graphs that are appealing to the eye:
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How to Change the Scale on an Excel Graph (Super Quick)
FAQ
How do I change the horizontal scale in Excel?
Click the chart. Select Vertical (Value) Axis from the dropdown list on the Format tab, then select Format Pane. Important The following scaling options are only accessible when a value axis is selected. To access them, click Axis Options in the Format Axis dialog box.
