By Geetesh Bajaj
The significance of any chart lies in its ability to visually represent complex data as a trend that an audience can easily grasp. So if you create a complex chart with too much detail, you ironically might be creating confusion out of simplicity -- even if you aren’t aware that you are doing it.
One of the easiest ways to make your charts look simpler and less intimidating is by using fewer major units in the “Y” axis -- and if that sounds like something that's difficult to understand, then stop worrying and start following this easy tutorial.
(This tutorial is for PowerPoint 2007 and will also work in PowerPoint 2010.)
Follow these simple steps to change the major unit of Y axis in PowerPoint 2007 or 2010.
1. Select the chart within PowerPoint slide, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Chart editing mode

2. Now click on the Vertical Value Axis (the vertical line towards the left of the plot area), as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2 : Vertical Value Axis
3. Activate the Chart Tools Layout tab of the Ribbon . Towards the extreme left of the Ribbon tab, make sure that you have the selected the Vertical Value Axis -- then click the Format Selection button
(see Figure 3).
Figure 3 : Format selection

4. This summons the Format Axis dialog box (as shown in see Figure 4). Select the Axis Options tab from the left pane, and you'll find the options explained below in the right pane of the dialog box.
Figure 4 : Format Axis
Within the Axis Options tab of the dialog box, you'll find these options:
• Minimum : Set the minimum value for the axis.
• Maximum : Set maximum value for the axis.
• Major unit : Change to display largest increments.
• Minor unit : Change to display smallest increments.
• Values in Reverse Order : Display the largest value at the bottom of the axis and the smallest at the top.
• Logarithmic Scale : Displays the values in a logarithmic, rather than an arithmetic relationship.
• Display units : Choose from hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and trillions. You can also set this as None.

• Major tick mark type : Select to define the appearance of tick marks on the specified axis. You can choose in between outside, inside, and cross.
• Minor tick mark type : This option allows you to set intervals of minor tick marks on the specified axis.
• Axis labels : Here you can place the axis label to - next to axis (default), high or low.
Horizontal axis crosses:
• Automatic : This option if selected follows the default setting.
• Axis value : Here you can set the axis cross value.
• Maximum axis value : This option takes the highest value and applies the changes.
5. Now choose the Fixed radio button in Major unit , and enter the value in the text box, such as 4 (see
Figure 5).
Figure 5: Major unit
Note: Choose the Major unit value based on the highest value you have for the Vertical Value Axis.

6. When done, click Close to get back to the chart .
7. Figure 6 shows that the Y-axis major unit values now show a difference of 4 points . This makes the chart look cleaner and gives it more visual breathing space.
Figure 6: Y-axis values
8. Save your presentation, and you now have a simpler, cleaner, more easily -grasped chart.
About the Author:
Geetesh Bajaj has been designing and training with PowerPoint for 15 years and is a Microsoft
PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional.) He heads Indezine ( www.indezine.com
) a presentation design studio and content development organization based in Hyderabad, India. The site attracts more than a million page views each month and has thousands of free PowerPoint templates and other goodies for visitors to download. He also runs another PowerPoint- related site ( http://www.ppted.com
) that provides designer PowerPoint templates.
Geetesh also is the author of the best-selling book Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies and three subsequent books on PowerPoint 2007 for Windows and one on PowerPoint 2008 for Mac.
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