changing y (or Value) axis numbers

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Level 1

6 points

changing y (or Value) axis numbers

I'm trying to set the Y-axis of a chart to have "reasonable"numbers; by which I mean 5 or 10 unit increments, rather than something like 13.4 units. Here's the Axis control User uploaded file

Note that the Y-Axis scale maximum is set to Auto and is grayed out. It cannot be changed. I need to change it, since the Auto range is not even; it's like 0, 12.3, 23.2, etc. How do I force an axis maximum? Apple support was unable to help! Numbers 3.6, OS X 10.11.1

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.5), all patches installed

Posted on Nov 7, 2015 11:54 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 7, 2015 4:57 PM in response to Zarkov99

Zarkov99 wrote:

Try it!

I tested before posting the suggestions.

I started with a chart:

Then I clicked inside the Max: box and changed the Auto to 50:

Then I changed the number of steps to something that would give "whole numbers":

If you can't reproduce this, then you could try quitting Numbers and restarting your machine.

I'm using this version:

SG

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Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 7, 2015 3:16 PM in response to Zarkov99

Zarkov99 wrote:

If a field is gray, it won't accept an input.

Are you sure about that? Try clicking in the box where Auto appears in gray. Click once in there until the cursor blinks, and enter your value for Max and/or Min..

And I can change the number of steps, but they will not be whole numbers unless I have the same number of steps as I have data points

Are you sure about that? Have you tried experimenting with different numbers of steps? Usually you can get whole numbers to appear.

SG

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Answer 3

Zarkov99 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 8, 2015 4:50 AM in response to SGIII

Actually, I finally figured it out! Given your existence proof, I realized there must be something wrong with my data or chart. Both were opened in Numbers from an existing Excel file. Something in the Excel file must not have translated correctly, because when I copied the data into a new Numbers file and plotted it in Numbers, everything worked as you described. So the moral of the story is...

Don't try to modify charts already created in Excel!

Many thanks for your help.

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Answer 4

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 7, 2015 12:45 PM in response to Zarkov99

You should be able to click in the Max box and type a value. Also experiment with changing the number of steps until you get th look you want.

Sg

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Answer 5

Zarkov99 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2015 4:46 PM in response to SGIII

Yes, I'm quite sure. When I click in the field, I can enter a number, but when I hit Enter (or Tab), it goes back to auto. Try it!

Any yes, I have tried changing the steps number, which does indeed function. But you need to use as the number of steps the largest common multiple between the maximum value and the number of steps in order to have integer numbers on the y-axis. This does not work out mathematically in my case. In my case, the y values go from 0 to 44. So by choosing the right step value, I can have the y-axis increment in integer values of 1,2,4,11, or 22. I want increments of 10.

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Answer 6

Zarkov99 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2015 5:50 PM in response to SGIII

Oh, my! This is interesting. I can duplicate your results easily, but for my data it does not seem to work. So, many thanks for providing an existence proof. Now I have to figure out why it does not work for my chart and data set. If I cannot figure it out, is there a way I can send you a data file?

I'm new to both Numbers and this Community, though I have extensive experience with Excel.

BTW, same version of Numbers as you're using.

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Answer 7

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 7, 2015 12:36 PM in response to Zarkov99

Your screenshot isn't visible here.

See Wayne's user tip on how to post a screenshot.

SG

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Answer 8

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 8, 2015 8:20 AM in response to Zarkov99

Zarkov99 wrote:

Don't try to modify charts already created in Excel!

Ah yes, that is likely the origin of that strange behavior!

SG

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Answer 9

Zarkov99 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2015 12:49 PM in response to SGIII

Yes, I should; but it doesn't work. If a field is gray, it won't accept an input. And I can change the number of steps, but they will not be whole numbers unless I have the same number of steps as I have data points - which would be pretty messy.

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Answer 10

SGIII

Level 8

37,562 points

Nov 8, 2015 4:44 AM in response to Zarkov99

Zarkov99 wrote:

for my data it does not seem to work.

After camouflaging it if necessary to maintain confidentiality you could post a portion of your data right into a post here. Select the cells in the table, command-c, click in the editing window here, and command-v to paste.

Also a screenshot of the chart and the table might help to figure out what is different. Maybe you have chosen a different chart type.

I don't know if this has any bearing on this particular problem, but one of the potentially confusing things for people coming to Numbers from Excel is that when you do a "category" chart (pie, line, bar, etc.) the categories must be in a Header Column (or a Header Row). Note that column A in my example is a Header Column (you can tell from the shading). But when you are doing an X-Y Scatter you cannot have any of the charted values in a Header Column.

SG

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Answer 11

Zarkov99 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2015 12:38 PM in response to SGIII

Thanks for the tip!

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