We have a straightforward opinion on this: the problem is not with your data, but with how traditional spreadsheet tools interpret it. When you see your carefully prepared x-axis values replaced by a default 0-14 sequence, you are witnessing a fundamental design flaw in legacy software, one that treats your intent as secondary to its own assumptions.
The user who submitted this question, Jack_The_Pinapple, did everything right. They laid out a column of numbers from 0 to 50 in increments of 5, then asked the tool to plot it. What they got back was a scatterplot that ignored that column entirely, substituting an arbitrary index. This is not a user error. It is a failure of the software to recognize that the first column of data is often the most important one: the independent variable. Spreadsheet programs have long defaulted to treating the first column as a series label or, worse, as just another data series, leaving users to manually navigate obscure settings to correct the behavior. For anyone who has spent time wrestling with "Select Data" dialogs and axis range menus, this frustration is familiar.
What this means in practical terms is that traditional spreadsheets force you to fight the tool instead of focusing on the insight. Every minute spent hunting for the right checkbox is a minute not spent understanding your data. The solution should not require a forum post. It should be built into the experience: when you tell the software you want a scatterplot, it should ask which column holds the x-values, or better yet, infer it from your structure. Modern, AI-native spreadsheet tools do exactly this. They read your intent, not just your cell addresses. They let you define your axis with a simple selection, then plot exactly what you specified, no defaults overriding your choices, no hidden assumptions.
The lesson here is that the tool should adapt to you, not the other way around. If your plotting software routinely ignores your first column, it is not a sign that you need to learn more obscure features. It is a sign that the software is outdated. The next time you sit down to visualize data, ask yourself whether the tool respects your time and your data as much as you do. If the answer is no, it is time to explore an alternative that puts your x-axis exactly where you intend it, right where you placed it.