Formatting the axes

To format an axis of a chart, take the following steps:

  1. Right-click any other chart element, and on the shortcut menu, select the axis name from the Format Axes submenu to bring out the corresponding Format Axis dialog.

    Note that pie charts do not have axes.

  1. In the Axis tab, specify the settings for the axis as required.

    In the Option box, specify the number of the labels to be shown along the axis, the frequency at which the axis will be labeled, whether or not to only draw the axis (hide the labels), and whether or not to show gridlines perpendicular to the axis.

    In the Line box, set the line color, style, transparency, and thickness of the axis.

    In the Labels box, set the gap between the labels and the axis, and whether or not to draw the axis labels for the best result effect.

  2. In the Tick Mark tab, specify the settings for the tick marks as required.

    In the Tick Mark box, specify whether or not to use the same settings as the axis line for the tick marks, and if not, the color, style, transparency and thickness.

    In the Major Tick Mark and Minor Tick Mark boxes, you can set options respectively for major and minor tick marks, including whether to show these marks, the position if to show, and length of them.

  3. In the Font tab, format the font of axis labels, including the font face, size, color, transparency, rotation angle, shearing angle, and effects such as style, strikeout, underline and so on.
  4. In the Orientation tab, set an angle for axis labels so as to rotate them. You can either drag the Text hand in the Orientation box or type a value in the Angle spinner to perform the operation.
  5. In the Format tab, specify the format of the data format of the axis labels.

    Select a category from the Category box, then select a format from the Format box, and click Add to add it to the Stack box. You can add more than one format, and in the event that one is not necessary, click Remove to clear it.

  6. When done, click OK to accept the changes.

See also Format Category(X) Axis dialog for detailed explanation about options in the dialog.