Category Axis Labels May Appear Twice in Chart

In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article, two sets of labels may appear below the category axis in a chart.

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

• You create a chart that contains two value axes and at least two series. -and-
  
  
• You rotate the labels on the secondary value axis from 1 to 89 degrees.
  
  To do this, follow these steps:
  
  
  1. Select the secondary value axis.
  2. On the Format menu, click Selected Axis. Click the Alignment tab.
  3. Set the alignment to a value from 1 to 89, inclusive. Then, click OK.
  -and-
  
  
• You add a data table to the chart.
  
  To do this, follow these steps:
  
  
  1. On the Chart menu, click Chart Options. Click the Data Table tab.
  2. Click to select the Show Data Table check box. Then, click OK.

To see an example of this problem, see the "More Information" section in this article.

In some cases, the problem occurs only if you change the font used by the category axis in any way. For example, you change the font or font size.

NOTE: This problem does not occur if you rotate the labels on the primary value axis or if you rotate the labels on the secondary value axis to 90 or 0 (zero) degrees or to any negative number.

To work around this problem, remove one of the sets of labels by following these steps:

1. Select the category axis.
2. On the Format menu, click Selected Axis. Click the Font tab.
3. In the Color list, select the color that is the same as the background color of the chart. (Usually, this color is white). In the Background list, click Transparent.
4. Click OK.

The duplicate set of labels disappears; although the set is still there, it is formatted so that it does not appear on the screen.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Example

To see an example of this problem, follow these steps:

1. Create a new workbook. Enter the following values in Sheet1:
   A1: B1: 1st Qtr C1: 2nd Qtr D1: 3rd Qtr E1: 4th Qtr
   A2: East B2: 20 C2: 30 D2: 90 E2: 20
   A3: West B3: 30 C3: 40 D3: 35 D3: 30
2. Select cells A1:D3, and then click the Chart Wizard tool on the Standard toolbar. In the list of chart types, select Column. Then, click Finish.
   
   A new chart appears in the worksheet.
3. Select the category axis. Use the Font Size tool on the Formatting toolbar to increase the font size of the axis labels by one or two points.
4. Select the second series (West) in the chart. On the Format menu, click Selected Data Series.
5. Click the Axis tab. Click Secondary Axis and click OK.
6. On the Chart menu, click Chart Options. Click the Data Table tab. Click to select the Show Data Table check box, and then click OK.
   
   The data table appears below the chart.
7. Select the secondary value axis on the right side of the chart.
8. On the Format menu, click Selected Axis. Click the Alignment tab. Set the alignment to between 1 and 89 degrees and click OK.

Note that two sets of labels appear below the category axis: one set for the axis itself, and one set for the data table.

If you use the steps in the "Workaround" section, the second set of labels disappears.