Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Changing Axis Tick Marks.
If you use an Excel chart type that uses axes, you may have noticed the presence of "tick marks" on one or all of the axes. Tick marks are used to indicate a major or minor demarcation along an axis. For instance, if you have an axis that ranges from 0 to 1000, there may be major tick marks at every 100 in the range, and minor tick marks at every 50.
Excel normally sets up the tick marks for you, but you can change the way they appear by following these steps if you are using Excel 2007 or Excel 2010:
Figure 1. The Axis Options tab of the Format Axis dialog box.
The steps in Excel 2013 are largely identical, except that you end up working with the Format Axis task pane instead of the Format Axis dialog box.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6211) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Changing Axis Tick Marks.
Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!
Do you want to add data labels to the data points in an xy graph? Excel doesn't provide a way to get the desired labels, ...
Discover MoreGot a bunch of charts that you need to make formatting changes in? You can use a macro (or two) to apply the formatting ...
Discover MoreExcel is an excellent tool for keeping track of data over time. If you have information you are keeping by year, you may ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2016-04-25 19:22:53
Elmarie Kaufman
I have a file of 43K+ lines of data (electric usage by qtr hour) and have created a “month” designation in a column to the right of the data – with just one entry corresponding to the first line of data on the first day of each month. I am able to graph this data with the month labels presenting correctly if I designate the line numbers, but in a dynamic chart, although they will appear, they are not aligned to the data. All the month labels are jammed up on the left side of the xaxis (occupying perhaps a quarter of the xaxis length) while the rest of the axis is unlabeled. I have checked the dynamic axis label definition and it shows correctly when clicked on in the edit – but they just won’t display correctly on the graph. What is wrong? - See more at: http://ksrowell.com/blog-visualizing-data/2011/10/03/aligning-labels-with-tick-marks/#comment-13482
2016-01-29 09:01:14
J59
Dear Allen,
I have a question which also concerns the tick marks in my graph. I have multi-category labels in my graph, but when I plot the graph the bars that are generated are not aligned in the middle of the associated term. It seems Excel distributes all bars along some kind of gradient. This results in the most left category with a bar on the left, the bar slowly moving to the middle in the middle of the graph and ending up on the right side at the last category (on my right hand). I can't find anywhere on how to align the bars properly so they are evenly distributed (exactly above their term). Could you help me out? Kind Regards,
Tim
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2018 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Comments