Axis Titles, Ticks, and Tick Labels
You can hide axis titles and change tick labels by reorienting and moving them. For example, you can rotate all tick labels relative to the axis.
How to Change the Display of Axis Titles, Ticks, and Tick Labels
- Select an axis.
- If the Properties window is not already displayed,
from the menus choose:
- Use the Labels & Ticks tab to specify the options for the axis title, ticks, and tick labels.
- If necessary, use the Text tab to format the labels or title.
- Click Apply.
Using the Labels & Ticks Tab
Display axis title. Show/hide the axis title.
Display axis. Display the axis in various places in relation to the data frame.
Display labels. Show/hide the tick labels. The tick labels are the text frames that appear with major ticks. The labels can be category names or specific scale values.
Label orientation. Change the orientation of tick labels for categorical axes. You can select one of the built-in orientations, or you can select Custom Degrees, which allows you to enter a specific number of degrees that the labels are rotated in a clockwise direction from the horizontal. Horizontal labels are oriented at 0 degrees. Experiment with various orientations to see which fits best on your chart.
Category Label Placement. Change where the category labels appear on the axis. By default, the Chart Editor automatically places category labels at the major ticks. To change the default, you can select Custom and then enter a number in the Ticks skipped between labels box. The number indicates how many ticks and category labels are skipped between the other major ticks and label. For example, if there are three categories, by default the Chart Editor displays a tick and a label for each category. If you type 1 in the Ticks skipped between labels box, the Chart Editor displays ticks and labels for the first and third category, but not the second, skipped category.
Major/minor ticks. Major tick marks are displayed at each category or at the major increments specified on the Scale tab. Minor tick marks are displayed between the major increments on a scale axis. You can choose how the tick mark appears, and, for minor tick marks, how many minor tick marks appear for each major increment. To change the number of major tick marks on a scale axis, change the major increment on the Scale tab.
Category axes don't have minor tick marks, so you don't have the option to change them.