Minor Bar Chart Annoyance
Assume the following data as a chart source . . .
Now use the Chart Wizard to create a bar chart. The Wizard produces the following:
Most people read from top to bottom. If you look at the chart the Category items appear to be in reverse order (i.e. D, C, B, A). However, Excel recognizes the reverse order as the correct order.
It's an easy fix. Click on the Category axis to bring up the Format Axis Dialog box. On the Scale tab, select the Categories in reverse order option and the Value (Y) axis crosses at maximum category option.
This little macro works too (assuming an embedded chart . . click on or activate the chart first and then run it):
Sub SetUpBarChart()
Dim Cht As Chart
Set Cht = ActiveChart
With Cht.Axes(xlCategory)
.ReversePlotOrder = True
.Crosses = xlMaximum
End With
End Sub
After doing so, the chart looks like this:
I wonder why the programmers did not / could not design the bar chart to show categories in a top-to-bottom order first?
The reason for this is very straightforward. Replace Item A, Item B, etc., with 1, 2, etc. This puts a counting number at each label position, increasing from 1 as the first label to N as the Nth label.
Notice anything? 1 is closest to the origin, and subsequent labels are further away in order.
This is the same as the category axis in a column/line/area chart, only it goes in order horizontally, so nobody is concerned. Make a column chart with left-to-right labels, and convert it to a bar chart. It is inverted about a 45° plane, the same as if you switched X and Y in an XY chart.
If you want designers to start to second guess what the user may have “really” meant when they clicked on the chart wizard, you will have so many more of the behaviors that experienced users don’t like about Office 2007. The most you should ask for is a ReversePlotOrder checkbox for each axis in the Wizard.