Axis Properties

Axis Properties Dialog Box

The Axis Properties dialog box controls the appearance of an axis. For an interval variable, major tick marks are placed on an axis within the interval $[L,R]$ at locations $x_0 \pm i \delta$ for integer i. The value $x_0$ is called the anchor tick. The positive quantity $\delta$ is called the major tick unit. The interval $[L,R]$ is called the tick range.

The Axis Properties dialog box has the following tabs: Scales, Font, and Line. The Scales tab (Figure 10.3) appears only for interval variables. You can use the Scales tab to set tick marks. The Scales tab has the following fields:

Major tick unit: sets the distance between tick marks.
Anchor tick: sets the value of one tick mark from which the positions of other ticks are computed.
Number of minor ticks: sets the number of unlabeled tick marks to appear between consecutive major ticks.
Visible Axis Range: Minimum: sets the minimum value of the axis range.
Visible Axis Range: Maximum: sets the maximum value of the axis range.
Tick Range: Minimum: sets the minimum value of a tick mark. Ticks with values less than this value are not displayed.
Tick Range: Maximum: sets the maximum value of a tick mark. Ticks with values greater than this value are not displayed.

Note: The minimum and maximum values for Visible Axis Range do not necessarily correspond to the edges of the plot area. The plot area also has plot area margins. The computation to find the edges of the plot area is described in the section Plot Area Tab.

The Font tab is used to change the font and size of labels on an axis. The Font tab is described in section Common Plot Properties.

The Line tab is used to set the line styles for an axis. The Line tab is similar to the Reference Lines tab, which is also described in Common Plot Properties.