Format Axis Titles

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> From the previous lesson, your 2D Excel Line Chart should look like this:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Our Excel Line Chart" height="302" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLine3.gif" width="494" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> To format the dates on the bottom Axis, click on them with your left mouse button. With the dates Axis selected, right click. You should see this menu:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Format Axis" height="189" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineFormatDates.gif" width="509" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Select <b>Format Axis</b> from the menu, and you'll see the following dialogue box appear (Excel 2013 users will see a panel appear on the right of the screen, instead of a dialogue box):</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="The Format Axis dialogue box" height="499" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/FormatAxisDB.gif" width="502" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Under <b>Axis Type</b>, select <b>Text Axis</b>:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Axis Type - Text Axis" border="1" height="69" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/FormatAxisDBtype.gif" width="193" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Your dates should end up in the middle. (Our version of Excel was a little buggy. We had to click Date axis, then click back on Text axis to get the dates in the middle.)</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Dates are now in the middle" height="69" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/FormatAxisDBdates.gif" width="400" /></div> <h3 align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Adding an Axis Title</h3> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> To add an Axis label at the top of your chart, if you have Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, click the <b>Layout</b> menu at the top of Excel. Then locate the <b>Labels</b> panel:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Labels Panel" height="109" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineLayout.gif" width="219" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Click on <b>Chart Title</b>. From the menu, select <b>Above Chart</b>:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Chart Title - Above Chart" height="229" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineTtitle.gif" width="200" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you have Excel 2013, however, stay on the <b>Design</b> Ribbon and locate the <b>Chart Layouts</b> panel on the left, just under the File menu. Click <b>Add Chart Element</b>, then<b>Chart Title > Above</b> Chart:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Chart Titles in Excel 2013" height="337" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/2013/section2/line_chart_title.gif" width="298" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You will then see a default title appear at the top of the chart. Highlight the text, and type a title of your own:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="An Axis Title has ben added" height="288" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLine4.gif" width="480" /></div> <h3 align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;">  </h3> <h3 align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Add a Left Axis</h3> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We now need to add an Axis for the numbers running up the left of the chart. The numbers are the hours per week that people watch each channel - 0 to 6.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> From the Labels menu still, select <b>Axis Titles > Primary Vertical Axis Title > Rotated Title</b>:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Rotated Title" height="300" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineAxisTitles.gif" width="510" /></div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Axis titles in Excel 2013" height="337" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/2013/section2/line_axis_title.gif" width="322" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Excel users won't have <b>Rotated Title</b> option - the title will roate by itself.)</div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This will add a title like the following one:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="A default left Axis" border="1" height="372" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineAxisTitles2.gif" width="139" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Highlight the default title and type <b>Hours</b>. You can move the title to the left by clicking and dragging. This is a little tricky, though! Use the Zoom tool at the bottom of Excel to zoom in on your target:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Excel 2007 Zoom Tool" height="24" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/zoomTool.gif" width="245" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Move the Axis in to position:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Moving the Axis" border="1" height="104" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLineAxisTitles3.gif" width="138" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When you're done, your chart should now look like this one:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="Your Line Chart" height="289" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLine5.gif" width="481" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Spruce it up a bit by adding a bit of fill colour, rounded edges, and shadow. You've already done this <a href="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/excel2007s3p7.html">previously</a>, so we won't go through it again. When you're done, it may look like ours:</div> <div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <img alt="The Finished Excel 2007 Line Chart" height="300" src="http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/excel2007/images/chartsLine.gif" width="509" /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And that's it for line charts. If you've been following along from the beginning, you should now have some impressive Excel chart skills.</div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br /></div> <div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In the next part, we'll move on and do some more work on Formulas.</div> </div>

Format Axis Titles

From the previous lesson, your 2D Excel Line Chart should look like this: To format the dates on the bottom Axis, click on them with y...

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