Chart Axes

PowerPoint chart axes come in four varieties: category axis, value axis, date axis, and series axis. A series axis only appears on a 3D chart and is also known as its depth axis.

A chart may have two category axes and/or two value axes. The second axis, if there is one, is known as the secondary category axis or secondary value axis.

A category axis may appear as either the horizontal or vertical axis, depending upon the chart type. Likewise for a value axis.

PowerPoint behavior

Reverse-order

Normally, categories appear left-to-right in the order specified and values appear vertically in increasing order. This default ordering can be reversed when desired.

One common case is for the categories in a “horizontal” bar-chart (as opposed to the “vertical” column-chart). Because the value axis appears at the bottom, categories appear from bottom-to-top on the categories axis. For many readers this is odd, perhaps because we read top-to-bottom.

The axis “direction” can be switched using the Axis.reverse_order property. This controls the value of the c:xAx/c:scaling/c:orientation{val=minMax|maxMin} XML element/attribute. The default is False.

MS API protocol:

>>> axis = Chart.Axes(xlCategory)
>>> axis.ReversePlotOrder
False
>>> axis.ReversePlotOrder = True
>>> axis.ReversePlotOrder
True

Proposed python-pptx protocol:

>>> axis = chart.category_axis
>>> axis.reverse_order
False
>>> axis.reverse_order = True
>>> axis.reverse_order
True

Tick label position

Proposed python-pptx protocol:

>>> axis.tick_label_position
XL_TICK_LABEL_POSITION.NEXT_TO_AXIS
>>> axis.tick_label_position = XL_TICK_LABEL_POSITION.LOW
>>> axis.tick_label_position
XL_TICK_LABEL_POSITION.LOW

MS API protocol:

>>> axis.TickLabelPosition
xlTickLabelPositionNextToAxis
>>> axis.TickLabelPosition = xlTickLabelPositionLow

c:catAx/c:tickLblPos{val=nextTo}

Option “none” causes tick labels to be hidden.

Default when no <c:tickLblPos> element is present is nextTo. Same if element is present with no val attribute.

TickLabels.number_format

Proposed python-pptx protocol:

>>> tick_labels = axis.tick_labels
>>> tick_labels.number_format
'General'
>>> tick_labels.number_format_is_linked
True
>>> tick_labels.number_format = '#,##0.00'
>>> tick_labels.number_format_is_linked = False

Tick-mark label text for the category axis comes from the name of the associated category in the chart. The default tick-mark label text for the category axis is the number that indicates the position of the category relative to the left end of this axis. To change the number of unlabeled tick marks between tick-mark labels, you must change the TickLabelSpacing property for the category axis.

Tick-mark label text for the value axis is calculated based on the MajorUnit, MinimumScale, and MaximumScale properties of the value axis. To change the tick-mark label text for the value axis, you must change the values of these properties.

MS API protocol:

>>> tick_labels = axis.TickLabels
>>> tick_labels.NumberFormat
'General'
>>> tick_labels.NumberFormatLinked
True
>>> tick_labels.NumberFormatLinked = False
>>> tick_labels.NumberFormat = "#,##0.00"

# output of 1234.5678 is '1,234.57'

When sourceLinked attribute is True, UI shows “General” number format category regardless of contents of formatCode attribute.

The sourceLinked attribute defaults to True when the <c:numFmt> element is present but that attribute is omitted.

When the <c:numFmt> element is not present, the behavior is as though the element <c:numFmt formatCode="General" sourceLinked="0"/> was present.

The default PowerPoint chart contains this numFmt element:

``<c:numFmt formatCode="General" sourceLinked="1"/>``.

_BaseAxis.visible property

<c:delete val="0"/> element

  • when delete element is absent, the default value is True
  • when val attribute is absent, the default value is True

XML specimens

Example axis XML for a single-series line plot:

<c:catAx>
  <c:axId val="-2097691448"/>
  <c:scaling>
    <c:orientation val="minMax"/>
  </c:scaling>
  <c:delete val="0"/>
  <c:axPos val="b"/>
  <c:numFmt formatCode="General" sourceLinked="0"/>
  <c:majorTickMark val="out"/>
  <c:minorTickMark val="none"/>
  <c:tickLblPos val="nextTo"/>
  <c:txPr>
    <a:bodyPr/>
    <a:lstStyle/>
    <a:p>
      <a:pPr>
        <a:defRPr sz="1000"/>
      </a:pPr>
      <a:endParaRPr lang="en-US"/>
    </a:p>
  </c:txPr>
  <c:crossAx val="-2097683336"/>
  <c:crosses val="autoZero"/>
  <c:auto val="1"/>
  <c:lblAlgn val="ctr"/>
  <c:lblOffset val="100"/>
  <c:noMultiLvlLbl val="0"/>
</c:catAx>