X and Y Axis

Owned by Karen Hogan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 14, 2022
3 min read

The X Axis, running along the bottom of the chart, and the Y Axis, running vertically at the side of a chart, will normally display the name of the object represented on that axis. The options available for both axes can be changed in this section of the Attributes screen.

By ticking the ‘Hide’ box you can choose to hide one or both axes. This option might be useful in the following circumstances:

  • The X Axis is self-explanatory

  • The chart is in a small cell and space is at a premium

  • The X Axis values take up a lot of space

  • The Object Name is not helpful in the context of this chart 

X & Y Axis Label

The ‘Label’ field for both the X & Y axis can be used to change the default text, which is the object name, to text that is easier to understand. You can also use Object Replacement in these fields, which is really useful when the chart is used in a drill level.

X Axis Label Length

This works in the same way as the Legend Label Length, please refer to the section Legend Options for further details. 

Y Axis Display Type

The default display type for the Y axis is ‘Display Value’, alternative display types of ‘Display Value as Percentage by Total’ and ‘Display Value as Percentage by Column’ can be used to change the total of the Y axis to be the relative percentage of each X Axis total. 

The Min, Max and Interval options are used to:

Min – changes the minimum value on the Y axis

Max – changes the maximum value on the Y axis

Interval – changes the increments that the Y axis is displayed in. This can be helpful if the Y axis has many values. 

If you set a min value higher than the lowest data point or a max value lower than the highest data point the changes will be ignored.

The ‘Reset to default’ icon can be used to remove any changes that you made in either the X or Y Axis sections.

With effect from the 2022-02-24 release, the Y Axis has been redesigned to address the following:

  • Extra Gaps on y Axis top/bottom that are not needed, especially on 100% Stacked Charts

  • User defined y Axis Max ignored in general or ignored when equal to max data/target value

  • User defined y Axis Min ignored in general or ignored when equal to min data/target value

  • Charts not displaying correct in small sizes

This change will affect the way the Y-axis draws on the following chart types:

This change affects the draw of the y-axis it does not add extra attributes to the charts shown below.

  • Bar

  • Stacked Bar

  • 100% Stacked Bar

  • Variable Width Bar

  • Column

  • Stacked Column

  • 100% Stacked Column

  • Area

  • Stacked Area

  • 100% Stacked Area

  • Spline Area

  • Step Area

  • Line

  • Spline

  • Step Line

  • Combined

  • Merged

  • Scatter

  • Bubble

  • Waterfall

  • Horizontal Waterfall

  • Column Range

  • Bar Range

  • Spider

  • Radar

  • Wind Rose

We advise checking if extra adjustments are needed to your chart's y-axis if changes had been added prior to this release. To do this, you can use the chart editor y-axis Min, Max and Interval fields.