It’s often difficult to present data the way you want it displayed when taking simple X-axis, Y-axis options to display a graph, as shown below:

Obviously, the muddled display above is not an effective way to present data. Data labels are overwritten and there is not enough information on the axis for the viewer to understand the content and the purpose of the chart. The question is, then: How do we customize the data label on the chart to display clearly? In this article, we’ll help you to do that easily.

Step 1: Customize in the X-Axis tab

These are default settings for Columns, Lines, Area, Bar (Y-Axis), and Combination chart types. There are four sections including Data Type Settings, Appearance, Category X-Axis Labels, and Sort. However, the Date Type Settings section will be hidden if the X (Category) Axis value is not a date/time field type.

• Data Type Settings: Date Type only has Date and Time types, but we expanded Data Type formats. If users want to customize the date format, they would be able to do so by selecting Automatic, Years, Months, Weeks, or Days from the Date Scale dropdown. However, data will inherit the SharePoint date formatting if the Date Scale is “Automatic”.
• Appearance: There are some options that should be selected by default, such as Display X-Axis Title, Display X-Axis Labels, Display Major Tickmarks, and Display X-Axis Line. Toggle grid lines and tick marks are displayed on the axes.
• Display Major/Minor Gridlines: Gridlines extend from any horizontal and vertical axes across the plot area of the chart.
• Display Major/Minor Tickmarks: Ticks are small lines between the axis and their labels. The interval of tick marks can be set by varying interval properties of the parent axis.
• Labels Angle: If users want to customize the data label, they would be able to do so by selecting Auto, Slant, and Rotate from the Label Angle dropdown. However, the numeric text box will be hidden if the Label Angel option is set to Auto or Slant.
• Category X-Axis Labels: The user can customize values instead of using the category names from the data source.
• Sort: If users want to sort the X-Axis label on the chart, they would be able to do so by selecting the Same as Data Source, Ascending, Descending from the Sort Axis drop-down. These are the default settings for Pie and Funnel chart types: These are the default settings for Radar chart type: These are the default settings for Scatter chart type: These are the default settings for Polar chart type: In this example, I have customized the X-Axis for the Column Chart: Then I click the Preview hyperlink or Refresh button: Step 2: Customize in the Y-Axis tabThese are the default settings for all chart types, except for Pie and Funnel. In the Chart Options tab, if users check”Secondary Axis” on a Y (Value) Axis series, that series should be plotted on a separate axis, independent from the Primary Y-Axis values and scale. So the Secondary Y-Axis Configuration uses the same default settings as the Primary Y-Axis Configuration.

  Data Type Settings: Date Type has General, Number, Currency, Percentage, Scientific, Date, and Time types.

• For Number types: We expanded Data Type formats for numbers. The Decimal Places field should default to zero. Negative Numbers options should be “-1,234” and “1,234”. User 1000 Separator should be selected by default. The symbol field should contain the symbols.
• For Date and Time types: It is the same logic as X-Axis but without the “Automatic” option.
  Appearance: There are some options that should be selected by default, such as Display Y-Axis Title, Display Y-Axis Labels, Display Major Tickmarks, and Display Y-Axis Line. However, the Display Major Gridlines option will be selected by default if you selected Radar and Polar chart types to plot the background chart. Toggle grid lines and tick marks are displayed on the axes. And to make the data in a chart that displays axes easier to read, you can display a horizontal and vertical chart by using the Labels Angle and Labels Position options.
• Display Major/Minor Gridlines: Gridlines extend from any horizontal axes across the plot area of the chart.
• Display Major/Minor Tickmarks: Ticks are small lines between the axis and their labels. The interval of tick marks can be set by varying interval properties of the parent axis.
• Labels Angle: If users want to customize the data label, they would be able to do so by selecting Auto, Slant, and Rotate from the Label Angle drop-down. However, the numeric text box will be hidden if the Label Angel option is set to Auto or Slant.
• Labels Position: It only has Outside and Inside to display data on the chart.
• Display Units: The drop-down should include Default, Hundreds, and Thousands, 10000, 100000, Millions, and Billions.
• Major Gridline Steps: The option only displays if the Display Major Gridlines option is selected.
• These are the default settings for Pie and Funnel chart types. However, there is a difference in Labels Position. For Pie chart type, the Label Position drop-down has two options including Outside and Inside. For the Funnel chart type, the Label Position drop-down has three options Center, Left, and Right. In this example, I’ve customized Y-Axis for the Column chart: Then I click the Preview hyperlink or Refresh button: And we have a completed chart in the main view. It’s very easy and looks great!