2nd axis plotting incorrectly - is there a chart size limit?

S

Steve1959

I have a workbook with 10 worksheets, all of which are similar. Each
worksheet has a table and a graph. Each graph plots 11 data series, where
the X axis is the date, and each of the 11 series is a column of numbers. 2
of the 11 colums are larger numbers, so I plot them on a second Y axis to
keep the fidelity of the smaller numbers. There are currently about 55 rows
in the table (I add one row a month), so I'm plotting a lot of data. I've
been using this graph for years without a problem. It even survived the
conversion to Excel 2007, and that has been working fine too - until today.
Today everything that uses the 2nd Y axis is messed up! It appears as if all
55 data points are plotting between the first and second data point -
backwards. To illustrate: The X axis goes from April 2005 to June 2009.
All data plots correctly between those dates other than those series plotted
against the 2nd Y axis - and those data points start plotting at June of 2005
and plot in reverse order to the April 2005 starting point. The June 2009
data point plots at June 2005, and it goes backwards from there. If I change
the series over to the 1st axis it plots correctly, so the data appears to be
OK. Did I hit some sort of Excel limit on plotting? That's the only thing I
can think of - especially since it all worked fine earlier. I tried deleting
some rows, but that didn't help. Maybe I need to delete rows on all
worksheets - but before I start messing with my data, I thought I'd try here.
I'm running Excel 2007 in Windows Vista.
 
J

Jon Peltier

I suspect the Excel has helpfully added a secondary X axis, which is not
formatted the same as its primary counterpart. On the middle Chart Tools
ribbon tab, click on the Axes dropdown, choose Secondary Horizontal Axis,
and choose None.

- Jon
 
S

Steve1959

Thanks! That wasn't it - the secondary X axis was already selected as None,
but just to try out the settings in that menu, I just changed it from None to
Show Left to Right Axis and it fixed it. Both primary and secondary Y axes
are set at Show Default Axis, and the primary X axis was already set to Show
Left to Right Axis.

Thanks Jon - I'd not have even thought to look there otherwise!

Steve
 

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