Gantt / Bar chart showing employee names

[Gary Drumm]

I'm trying to create a Gantt chart using a bar chart that lists employee names in the left hand column.
The second column will be their hire date, the third column will show how many weeks of training they have had so far, and the fourth column will show how many weeks of training remain.

The names in the left hand column are all bunched up, and illegable.

I've tried adding a column to the left, I've tried moving their names to the top row, and I've tried rotating text.

How do I get their names un-jumbled?

I searched the site, but didn't find anything relavent.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[PCRIDE]

You might have shrink text turned on, highlight the cells and press CTRL 1 then find the option for Shrink to fit under Alignment.

If your talking about spliting the names (First and Last) use Text To columns option in the Ribbon.

Hope that helps

 

[Gary Drumm]

Neither of those helped.
Also, when I highlight the data to be converted to a bar chart, it's inverting the data. The data for the most senior trainee is at the top of my column, but it winds up on the bottom of my bar chart, 180 degrees reversed.

The names are still jumbled, as though they are being written vertically in the rows, not horizontally (as they should be)

Thanks,
Gary

 

[energman58]

If you select the Format Axis dialog box for the vertical axis - right click on the axis and it is near the bottom of the menu - there is a check box for Categories in Reverse Order which will get your bar chart in the same order as your worksheet data (no idea why it does that - it just does as the default)

I dont know why your WS should be illegible - my only suggestion is to copy a format from somewhere else and see if that fixes it. Have you looked in the format cells dialog box under allignment - there is a "shrink to fit" check box which may be the culprit and a "wrap text" box which may help. I assume you have tried making the column wider?

 

[PCRIDE]

You may need to post a screen shot, but it sounds like the text direction is vertical. Press CTRL 1 again then in the top right corner there is a text direction module. Just move the arrow to 0.

Post a screen shot if you can. I am sure we can resolve it.

 

[Gary Drumm]

The Category Axis trick worked, and I'm trying to remember how to post a screen shot.
I did Alt + Prt Screen, but can't recall how to add that to the post.

Edit Copy only seems to capture the data, not the chart

Trainee Name Number Hire Date Weeks Completed Weeks Remaining
Larome Simons 1 02/21/11 4 4
Carl Jackson 2 02/21/11 4 4
Charles Thomas 3 02/21/11 4 4
Benito Meza 4 02/21/11 4 4
Adrian Tucker 5 03/08/11 3 5
Chris Rodriquez 6 03/08/11 3 5
Peter Jones 7 03/08/11 3 5
John Saith 8 03/08/11 3 5
Lionell Henderson 9 03/08/11 3 5
Tammy DelaTorre 10 03/15/11 2 6
Sam Nem 11 03/15/11 2 6
Alonzo Salinas 12 03/15/11 2 6
Tommy Manyvanh 13 03/15/11 2 6
Oscar Castro 14 03/22/11 1 7
Don Sundara 15 03/24/11 1 7
Mark Ousley 16 03/24/11 1 7
Mike Miller 17 03/24/11 1 7

Okay, Copy didn't work too well, but here is the data. I added a column of numbers, and charted that, without the names column, and that seems to be a work around. The numbers are vertical, and would have crammed together had they not been only two digits.

I tried rotating the text, and it just doesn't seem to recognise that column as text?
I tried columns to text, I'm not sure what that is. Anyway, that didn't help.

Any ideas are certainly appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Gary Drumm]

Okay, I finally got the names to appear correctly by using Format Cells, Number=Text.

But now my data is not showing and I have an unbroken bar across the chart, beside each trainee name.

Sorry guys, I haven't used Excel in a couple of years.

Gary

 

[Gary Drumm]

Okay,
I deleted the Number column I had added, then it worked fine.

Thanks for your help.

GAry

I'll break out my books at work the next time I have an issue like this.