How to customize axis labels

Here we have a simple set of generic shipping data.

We have a date, quantity, and a field to indicate batch number.

The first thing you probably notice is that there are some gaps in the columns.

So, the first thing I’ll do is set the axis punch in to text.

The dates still appear, but now they’re plotted at equal intervals.

Now let’s customize the actual labels.

Instead you’ll need to open up the Select Data window.

Here you’ll see the horizontal axis labels listed on the right.

opt for edit button to get into the label range.

So I can just enter A through F.

When I click OK, the chart is updated.

So that’s how you might use completely custom labels.

But, since we have some suitable labels in the batch column, we could just use those instead.

I just need to use select data again and point to that range.

Next, I’m going to create a new label that concatenates the batch with the date.

For this, I’ll use the TEXT function and the ampersand for concatenation.

Then I’ll update the chart to use that label instead.

Now, on the vertical axis, one change we can make is to use commas for thousands.

Finally, I’ll grab the chart, and bump up the font size.

This affects all text labels at the same time.