Comments on: TM AutoChart: Connect chart axis parameters to cell values

By: chrisham

chrisham — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:01:00 +0000

Ah gotcha! Thanks Jon, great trick to know!

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:36:00 +0000

Chrisham -

As AlexJ says, this is "[e]specially useful when multiple charts need to have the same scale." Each chart has the same dummy series, which contains the min and max X and Y values. Excel's autoscale then works the same in all charts, so the scales are identical.

By: chrisham

chrisham — Sun, 16 May 2010 06:27:00 +0000

@ AlexJ, I am a little confused why would you add an invisible series you add to set the min and max values. Isn’t this what Excel does using the Autoscale feature? I am sure if you and Jon see the need for this, then there’s something in here for me to learn, which eludes me at this time.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:56:00 +0000

Alex -

If you got this trick from me, it's because I got it first from someone else, I think from Charley Kyd.

By: AlexJ

AlexJ — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:16:00 +0000

I have been using a invisible series on the chart to set min and max values. Especially useful when multiple charts need to have the same scale. I think I got the technique from Jon Peltier. Doesn’t set the major and minro values, though.

By: Tushar Mehta

Tushar Mehta — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Hi John,

Thanks for the tip. The add-in was originally written in the days of Excel 2000. I'll have to budget some time to explore use of a UDF to manipulate chart elements. The biggest weakness I can anticipate is that if the process stops working there's not much one can do about it. After all, the documentation for a UDF states that it can only return a result and not change the Excel environment...unless, of course, that got dropped from the documentation also...{grin}

By: John Walkenbach

John Walkenbach — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:28:00 +0000

I haven't looked at your add-in, Tushar, but here's a very simply way of doing it, using a UDF:

http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2007/01/12/modifying-shapes-with-udfs/

See the ChangeChartAxisScale function. It still works in Excel 2010. A distinct advantage is that it doesn't wipe out the undo stack.