Excel Chart - How to make monthly gridlines?

[misujerr]

Hi,
Thanks for reading.
I have some charts that have data on the y axis and dates on the x axis (Excel 2002). Is there a way to have the gridlines show up for every 1st day of the month? Using 30 for the major grid unit almost works, but then you will get 2/1, 3/3, 4/2, etc...
I tried typing in "month" but an error box came up saying that I had to use a number. My date range is 2/1/05 to 8/31/05. I have spent hours searching, but have come up empty. Can one of you help?
Thanks in advance for any help offered!
Greg.

 

[tactps]

Welcome

Right-click on the x-axis, and then click on "Format Axis".
Click on the "Scale" tab
Chane major unit to "1" and choose "Month(s)rom the drop-down box.

You may also want to change the base unit to show the months, not the dates.

 

[misujerr]

Thanks for your help! Except that I don't have a drop down box there
The only drop down I have is for display units, in hundreds, thousands, etc.
Is it because I copied the chart from a Excel 97 spreadsheet (I think)?

Arg, so close, yet so far...
Thanks, Greg.

 

[tactps]

I would check that the source data is dates, not text or numbers (check the format).

If these are true dates, then Excel should recognise them.

 

[misujerr]

Yay! I opened up a couple other just regular bar charts that I needed this on and there it was, plain as day.

I neglected to mention that the ones that I am having problems on are Gantt charts, so the x axis is actually the value axis, which is probably why I can't get the date dropdown? Sorry...
And I did check, they are in date format, 2-May-2005, etc.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[tactps]

Ah, the devil is in what you don't say, as much as what you do.

Glad to help (if that's in fact what I did). Otherwise, sorry.

 

[misujerr]

Yeah, cool, you did help! on the bar charts, but I have about 10 Gantt charts that need this "treatment", any clue? Like I said, I just copied the chart from a link from this archive:
http://www.mrexcel.com/archive/Chart/8031.html

The actual d/l is here:
http://www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/timeline.exe

Think if I started from scratch I would have any better luck (other than understanding how to do it better)?

Nah, I don't think so...

Thanks, Greg.

 

[misujerr]

So apparently, I can't do monthly gridlines because it is a Gantt chart? Does anyone have a workaround for this?
And thanks for your help so far!
Greg.

 

[flaviotti]

So apparently, I can't do monthly gridlines because it is a Gantt chart? Does anyone have a workaround for this?
And thanks for your help so far!
Greg.

Hi Greg,

I have exactly the same situation here. Let's write each other here if any of us finds a workaround.

Cheers,
/Flavio