Line chart - date line association gone mad!

[Johannes Czernin]

Hi, everybody,

I have just found this newsgroup and I wonder if anyone could help me with a
problem that has suddenly turned up:

I run Excel in an Office97 package on a Win98 system computer. I have a
workbook that has one column for consecutive calendar dates and another
column, among others, with a "Weight" entry for each day. After each line
containing an entry in these two columns there are several more lines
following with various values for that day but with both the "Date" and the
"Weight" column cells empty. If anybody guessed, BTW, that this project
could have something to do with both "Weight Watchers" and my dear beloved
wife he would not be too wrong!

On a separate sheet there is a line chart associated to this worksheet
table. It is set to display "Calendar Date" on the X-axis (declared as "time
axis") and the corresponding "Weight" entry for each calendar day on the
Y-axis. Currently the X-axis is scaled for one full year, i.e. from 1
January 2005 to 31 December 2005. The entire setup has been in constant use
and totally free from errors for several years running.

This morning, when I opened the workbook, the association between the table
entries and the chart display suddenly has gone awry. The line with the
"Weight" values is here, but instead of following the current date, from 1
January to 16 January, it has become stretched out from the beginning of the
year to somewhere around April or May.

Checking the data line reveals that for each datapoint the display for X and
Y are still correct - they only do not line up with the proper point on the
X-axis anymore. I have tried whatever I could think of, but to no avail. I
have even tried to re-create a new instance of that chart from scratch, but
to my utmost surprise this turned out to not display the data line at all!

I would very much appreciate any suggestion as to what could have gone wrong
here.

Thank you very much in advance for any help,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Tushar Mehta]

Were the x-axis scale max/min values set manually? And, have now
become automatic? Double-click the x-axis then select the Scale tab.

Or was the original plot range set to the entire year and now utilizes
only a part of the range. In the chart select the weight series and
then check SERIES formula. What range does it cover?

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Hi, Tusher,

Were the x-axis scale max/min values set manually? And, have now
become automatic? Double-click the x-axis then select the Scale tab.

Thanks for your quick first try to lead me by my hand.

Originally the X-axis values were set tjr usual way, i.e. by marking the
range with the cursor. I have now checked the current situation: The boxes
for minimum, maximum and "Value axis intersects at..." do show the correct
entries. "Unit" is set for days, "Main interval" is set for 1 month,
"secondary interval" for 7 days. Of all the checkboxes in the Scaling dialog
box, however, only "unit" has a check mark, the others are empty.

I have tried to fiddle around with these entries but as soon as I change
anything Excel would revert to its old horror of jumping back to 1 January
1900 and filling up the entire chart with hundreds of closely spaced grid
lines, or it would simply overlay the entire diagram with a black layer.
Manually changing back to my "good" entries in the box reverts the chart to
the current state with the value series line extending far forward into the
year.

Please note that my descriptions of the various Excel elements might be a
bit unusual - I am working with a German language version of the program and
as I unfortunately do not have an English original at hand I have to try to
translate back..... and as Microsoft of course have blundered quite a lot
when progressing from their English original to the various foreign language
versions the re-engineering I am into now is not easy, ending up in more or
less educated guesses more frequently than desired! I don't know if you
are familiar with this problem but I can assure you I have found numerous
instances in various programs from MS, like Word, Excel or Access, where
even a native German speaker would not understand what a particular menu
item, or a help function detail, was intended to be unless he happens to be
more or less fluent in English!

Or was the original plot range set to the entire year and now utilizes
only a part of the range. In the chart select the weight series and
then check SERIES formula. What range does it cover?

Originally the plot range, of course, comprised the full year. Nothing was
changed here and everything was perfectly in order the last time the program
was terminated. When it was re-started the following morning the chart just
came up with its crazy display.

What would you suggest as the next step in the analyzing process? Just for
your info, by the way, I may add I'm no newbie with these things so please
don't hesitate to go into as intricate technical details as you might think
useful!

Thanks once again,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Tushar Mehta]

Hi Johannes,

As far as MS's translations of its products into other languages goes,
I have very little knowledge of this field. Of course, your
description of the various fields was just fine.

I am at a bit of a loss as to why you suddenly started having this
problem. Did you install any new software? And, I mean any as in from
any source. How update a new XL (or other Office) add-in? Upgrade
Office? Update it with a service pack? Change any settings? In XL or
the OS. Regional settings, maybe? Changed anything in Tools |
Options... | Transition tab in XL?

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

 

[Don Guillett]

There have been reports of google desktop search causing problems

 

[Johannes Czernin]

I am at a bit of a loss as to why you suddenly started having this
problem. Did you install any new software? And, I mean any as in from
any source. How update a new XL (or other Office) add-in? Upgrade
Office? Update it with a service pack? Change any settings? In XL or
the OS. Regional settings, maybe? Changed anything in Tools |
Options... | Transition tab in XL?

Hi, Tushar,

No, none of the above - nothing was added, nothing was changed..... I just
shut down the machine in the evening and restarted it the next morning.

The crazy thing is that the defective workbook does have another pair of
table-plus-chart with exactly the same settings and this one has been
unaffected! Make sense of of that!

Anyhow, I'm completely at loss..... and BTW I can't update my operating
system as WinXP will not work on my stone age computer (233 mHz Pentax-2). I
did try exactly that about a year ago but I had to change back to Win98
after a week or so of continous, unbearable trouble - in spite of the fact
that my system is well above what the good people at Microsoft are
recommending as "minimum specs" for WinXP!

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Hi, Don,

Good hint but not applicable - I'm extremely careful not to let any such
nonsense get onto my computer!

Thanks anyhow,

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Johannes Czernin]

Advise to everybody who kindly tried to help me:

Hi, Andy,

The totally unexpected has happened: I found the cause! It was really
hard to locate - in a table containing several THOUSAND rows one small text
entry composed of both letters and numbers had inadvertently slid one row
too far and settled in a column supposed to have date entries exclusively.

Nevertheless I really appreciate your quick intervention!

Kind regards,

Johannes