Changing Axis Tick Marks

If you use an Excel chart type that uses axes, you may have noticed the presence of "tick marks" on one or all of the axes. Tick marks are used to indicate a major or minor demarcation along an axis. For instance, if you have an axis that ranges from 0 to 1000, there may be major tick marks at every 100 in the range, and minor tick marks at every 50.

Excel normally sets up the tick marks for you, but you can change the way they appear by following these steps if you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Right-click on the axis whose tick marks you want to change. Excel displays a Context menu for the axis.
2. Choose Format Axis from the Context menu. (If there is no Format Axis choice, then you did not right-click on an axis in step 1.) Excel displays the Format Axis dialog box.
3. Make sure the Scale tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Change the value to the right of Major Unit to indicate the multiple at which the major tick marks should appear.
5. Change the value to the right of Minor Unit to indicate the multiple at which the minor tick marks should appear.
6. Use the controls on the Scale tab to indicate where tick marks should appear along the axis.
7. Click on OK.

If you are using Excel 2007 then you should follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the axis whose tick marks you want to change. Excel displays a Context menu for the axis.
2. Choose Format Axis from the Context menu. (If there is no Format Axis choice, then you did not right-click on an axis in step 1.) Excel displays the Format Axis dialog box.
3. Make sure the Axis Options tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. To the right of Major Unit, click Fixed and specify a multiple at which you want the major tick marks to appear.
5. To the right of Minor Unit, click Fixed and specify a multiple at which you want the minor tick marks to appear.
6. Click on OK.