Charting nightmares in Excel 2k8

[powers]

This is going to be hard to explain, but I'm going to try to anyway.
I'm having one heckuva time getting charts to work properly. The
latest problem I'm having is in trying to add additional source data
to a pre-existing chart (which is a mix of a line chart and a scatter
plot)

I click Chart->Source Data, and add my new data by selecting the name,
X, and Y value ranges. Then I click ok.

The new name shows up in the legend, but there is no data plotted in
the chart. So, I click the new name that has been added to the
legend, and then click on the basic line chart in the gallery. When I
do this, the line chart for one of the pre-existing plots completely
changes, and it happens to be the one directly to the left of it in
the legend!

To make this clear, let's say I am plotting temperature over time. My
x-axis is time, and I am plotting test A, test B, and test C over
time. So far so good. Now I add a new set of source data, test D and
test E. test D and test E show up in the legend, but there is no data
plotted on the graph. The legend is in order from left to right (A,
B, C, D, E). Now I select D in the legend, and click the basic line
chart in the gallery. The plot for line C instead completely changes
and is now invalid.

I hope I explained it well enough. What a headache this upgrade to
Excel 2k8 has been. Between constant crashes, autorecover getting
disabled when I copy a medium sized portion of data from one workbook
to another, and strange chart problems like this, I have wasted many
many of my work hours fighting this app.

 

[Gary Call]

I've figured out that you can right click on the chart and select the change from the menu that drops down, I came here looking for a solution as well.

I've had at least 1 or 2 complete crashes in excel per day as well.

What a pain - can I go back to Office 04?

This of course doesn't begin to address the challenges of syncing a blackberry with Entourage 2008!!

 

[Stacy Moore]

I too am having all sorts of problems with charts. There is limited functionality in formatting chart elements compared to prior versions. If you don't like how the "wizard" initially makes the chart you are out of luck. Trying to make changes in width of columns, space between columns, data to include results in a steady stream of crashes. Is there a way to go back to a prior version just in Excel. My productivity has slowed to a crawl.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I too am having all sorts of problems with charts. There is limited
functionality in formatting chart elements compared to prior versions. If you
don't like how the "wizard" initially makes the chart you are out of luck.
Trying to make changes in width of columns, space between columns, data to
include results in a steady stream of crashes. Is there a way to go back to a
prior version just in Excel. My productivity has slowed to a crawl.

Yes, you can go back to Excel 2004. However, have you explored the
formatting palette which becomes visible when you click the tool box icon?
When a chart is selected there is a chart formatting section which lets you
do most of the things you are asking about.

 

[Eric Waldbaum [MSFT]]

If there are specific formatting options in charts that you have not found
in Excel 2008, please let us know. Some other ways to format a chart
element are to:

Simply double-click it OR select it->Format menu->([Chart element]...
(cmd+1)) OR select it->right-click on it->Format [chart element]...

Since there can be a lot of elements in a chart, please double-check you
have the element you want selected. There are a lot of options in the
Format Data Series dialog for example including the Options pane where you
can change the overlap and gap width.

-Eric
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

 

[Bill Abrams]

If there are specific formatting options in charts that you have not found

For some reason, the ability to control tic marks has been dropped from version 2008. Also the "Elements" bar is a waste of landscape especially on a laptop - it brings no useful functionality.

in Excel 2008, please let us know. Some other ways to format a chart
element are to:

Simply double-click it OR select it->Format menu->([Chart element]...
(cmd+1)) OR select it->right-click on it->Format [chart element]...

Since there can be a lot of elements in a chart, please double-check you
have the element you want selected. There are a lot of options in the
Format Data Series dialog for example including the Options pane where you
can change the overlap and gap width.

-Eric
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

in message

Yes, you can go back to Excel 2004. However, have you explored the
formatting palette which becomes visible when you click the tool box icon?
When a chart is selected there is a chart formatting section which lets
you
do most of the things you are asking about.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MS Mac Newsgroups: <http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums>
MS Mac News & Updates: <http://www.microsoft.com/mac>

 

[Eric Waldbaum [MSFT]]

Hi Bill,
Thank you for letting us know about the tick marks in charts missing- this
is a known issue that we have been actively investigating. It sounds like
you used the Elements Gallery to at least insert a chart. Some customers
requested having a more customizable, removable, floating Elements Gallery
in a future release. If you would like it to be hidden, how would you
prefer to insert/change a chart (for example)?

Thanks,
-Eric
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

If there are specific formatting options in charts that you have not
found

For some reason, the ability to control tic marks has been dropped from
version 2008. Also the "Elements" bar is a waste of landscape especially
on a laptop - it brings no useful functionality.

in Excel 2008, please let us know. Some other ways to format a chart
element are to:

Simply double-click it OR select it->Format menu->([Chart element]...
(cmd+1)) OR select it->right-click on it->Format [chart element]...

Since there can be a lot of elements in a chart, please double-check you
have the element you want selected. There are a lot of options in the
Format Data Series dialog for example including the Options pane where
you
can change the overlap and gap width.

-Eric
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

in message

On 4/28/08 4:00 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,
"Stacy
Moore" wrote:

I too am having all sorts of problems with charts. There is limited
functionality in formatting chart elements compared to prior versions.
If
you
don't like how the "wizard" initially makes the chart you are out of
luck.
Trying to make changes in width of columns, space between columns,
data
to
include results in a steady stream of crashes. Is there a way to go
back
to a
prior version just in Excel. My productivity has slowed to a crawl.
Yes, you can go back to Excel 2004. However, have you explored the
formatting palette which becomes visible when you click the tool box
icon?
When a chart is selected there is a chart formatting section which lets
you
do most of the things you are asking about.

 

[Welch Suggs]

The problem I've been having is that there is no obvious way to assign data cells as category (X-axis) labels. For example, say that you have years 1995-2005 in the A row and 3 fields of data in rows B-D. It's easy to use B, C, and D for your Y-axis measures, but I've been trying for hours now to assign row A for X-axis labels. Help!

 

[Welch Suggs]

The problem I've been having is that there is no obvious way to assign data cells as category (X-axis) labels. For example, say that you have years 1995-2005 in the A row and 3 fields of data in rows B-D. It's easy to use B, C, and D for your Y-axis measures, but I've been trying for hours now to assign row A for X-axis labels. Help!

sorry, that would be row 1 for labels and rows 2-4 for data, obviously.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

The problem I've been having is that there is no obvious way to assign data
cells as category (X-axis) labels. For example, say that you have years
1995-2005 in the A row and 3 fields of data in rows B-D. It's easy to use B,
C, and D for your Y-axis measures, but I've been trying for hours now to
assign row A for X-axis labels. Help!

If all else fails, select the data series in the chart. Notice in the
formula bar that there are 2 consecutive commas in the series formula.
Insert the cursor between the commas and enter the range of the cells used
for the X axis labels.

 

[Welch Suggs]

That worked, thank you very much. But what an infernally complicated workaround for something that ought to be patently obvious. I trust this will be fixed in a software update sometime soon? I discovered a number of other discussion threads on exactly the same point, but none with this solution.

 

[John C]

This all helps getting my x-axis numbers on the bottom of the graph, but what if my x data has jumps in it? for example x={1,2,3,5,13}. The graph just treats the x data as {1,2,3,4,5} equally spaced; not separated as the 3 to 5 and 5 to 13 data points should be. Basically it distorts my graph.

 

[Carl Witthoft]

This all helps getting my x-axis numbers on the bottom of the graph, but what
if my x data has jumps in it? for example x={1,2,3,5,13}. The graph just
treats the x data as {1,2,3,4,5} equally spaced; not separated as the 3 to 5
and 5 to 13 data points should be. Basically it distorts my graph.

Yes, that's because only "Scatterplot" will handle the x-axis data as
numeric values. All other chart types considre the x-axis to be
"categories," or basically a sequence of text-labelled data.

 

[Number Cruncher]

Charting nightmares is right. I was about to ask how any company could release a new version of their software as bug-ridden as this, but I see the angst has already been spewing on every front. I am a long-time user of Excel, especially very large data files where I do lots of charting. With this new version, I spend more time gazing at the rotating pinwheel than I do actually doing anything. When I look in the Activity Monitor, Excel is hogging almost the entire CPU. Is there some default setting that can be changed to fix this?

Also, when I open an xls file that someone sends me from the Windows version, I save it as an xlsx file and it only takes up about half the memory, which seems like a good sign, until I have to wait several MINUTES for it to come up every time I try to open it. Microsoft service was completely worthless with their usual cookie cutter answers about everything that is NOT a solution, like reinstalling, which I've already done. This is so bad that it is completely useless to me in its current state.

And by the way, this is all on a brand new 24-inch i-Mac that I just purchased last month so it's not some issue with an older machine. :angry:

 

[eugenioz]

I totally copy Number Cruncher.
With xls file coming from windows and something like three data series with about 20K point each it takes about 5-10 minutes to update each data series with CPU stucked to 100% to Excel and cooling fans at 6Krpm on a MacBook with Leo .5.2 and 2G Ram. :frown:

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

I totally copy Number Cruncher.
With xls file coming from windows and something like three data series with about 20K point each it takes about 5-10 minutes to update each data series with CPU stucked to 100% to Excel and cooling fans at 6Krpm on a MacBook with Leo .5.2 and 2G Ram. :frown:

Hi,

Hopefully some of the anger and angst will be diminished when the
upcoming service pack arrives. Be sure you have your copy of office set
to check for updates.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[Number Cruncher]

Hopefully some of the anger and angst will be diminished when the

upcoming service pack arrives. Be sure you have your copy of office set
to check for updates.

I hope you're right. This new release really threw a wrench into the works for me. My Office software is already set for checking updates, and I check occasionally on my own as well. Any idea when this update will be?

I found it helps a little to save my files in the Excel 97-2004 format. The graphing is still very slow, but it's a lot quicker opening the files.

 

[kmoyd]

If there are specific formatting options in charts that you have not found

in Excel 2008, please let us know.

I cannot figure out how to get my labels on a Pie Chart. I tried selecting two columns with the first one containing the labels. That works in Excel 2004.

In Excel 2004 Source Data asks for the location of the labels. Excel 2008 does not.

 

[Eric Waldbaum [MSFT]]

Hi kmoyd,
While the chart is select go to the Formatting Palette->Chart Options pane
and under Other options select an option other than None in the Labels menu.
Another way to apply labels is to double-click on the data series/point to
bring up the Format Data Series/Point dialog and then select an option other
than None and click OK to apply it.
Once you have a labels, you should be able to move each label to another
location within the chart area.

-Eric
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

 

[David Taylor]

Anyone else find they can't link Excel charts to Word 2008?

I am running Office Mac 2008 (German) version. I try to past an excel chart into Word and then later update it - at which point excel crashes.