In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this
article, if you create a column chart with column titles along the x-axis,
Microsoft Excel may print only every other title if the title is too long
to fit under the column or columns. Column labels may or may not wrap on
the screen and may or may not wrap when you view them in print preview or
when you print them.
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To work around this problem, use any of the following methods:
- Resize the chart on the chart sheet. When you resize the chart to
certain sizes, Microsoft Excel will wrap some text labels. Sometimes
the text will wrap such that all labels are displayed. When you view
the chart in print preview, it will have results independent of the
screen results.
-or-
- On the chart, format the x-axis data labels in a smaller point size,
making the labels small enough to fit under the data columns. This
workaround is useful in cases where one or two labels are only slightly
too long for the available space.
-or-
- Place blank columns on either side of the data in the worksheet and
include those columns in the chart data as the first and third data
series. This will result in thinner data columns and excess items in
chart legends, but the data labels will now wrap under the data
columns. To adjust columns that are too thin: select the column series,
and click Column Group on the Format menu. Click the Options tab, and
then adjust the Gap Width option to the width you want.
-or-
- Insert line break characters by pressing ALT+ENTER (or
COMMAND+OPTION+RETURN on a Macintosh computer) to force the data labels
on the worksheet to be wrapped. These line break characters will be
carried through to the chart.
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When you print a chart or view it in print preview, there is no way to
force automatic line wrapping (even if you've formatted the lines in the
worksheet with the Wrap Text option). Not having the "text wrap" feature
can be a problem when each data group has a unique name and no obvious
pattern.
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