XL97: Chart Axis May Be Four Years Early After You Format Scale

When you format an axis in a chart by using a time scale, the axis may begin and end four years too early.

For example, if you want the axis to start at year 1990 and end at year 1999, it may actually start at year 1986 and end in year 1995.

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

• You type a serial date value in the Minimum or Maximum box on the Scale tab in the Format Axis dialog box.
  
  -and-
• You are using the 1904 Date System in Microsoft Excel. To use the 1904 Date System, follow these steps:
  
  
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Calculation tab.
  3. Click to select the 1904 Date System check box. Click OK.

NOTE: This problem is more likely to occur in Microsoft Excel for Macintosh than in Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows because Microsoft Excel for Macintosh uses the 1904 Date System by default. The problem does not occur when Microsoft Excel uses the 1900 Date System.

Specifically, the problem occurs because Microsoft Excel uses the 1900 Date System for the serial date values that you type in the Minimum and Maximum boxes.

To work around this problem, do not type serial date values in the Minimum and Maximum boxes on the Scale tab of the Format Axis dialog box. Instead, type the dates as you would normally type them in a worksheet. For example, use the formats in the following table:

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