chartsmicrosoft excel
I'm struggling while trying to plot simple data into a simple chart in Excel (2010 beta).
My data is a very simple one:
Value Year
----- ----
1 1900
5 1902
3 1912
etc. In the chart, I want year to be the X axis and the value to be the Y axis, and have a single line mapping the change in value over years.
When I select my data, Excel wants to map both at the same time, rather than plotting each pair as a point on the graph.
How the heck do you do this?
What range is specified for the X axis in the data source dialog?
If the data looks like numbers, and there is a label in the top left cell of the source data table, Excel will treat the first column like a data series, and not as X axis labels. Make sure that the top left cell (above the labels) is empty before creating the chart.
To fix an existing chart, open the Select Data dialog and adjust the source of the X axis labels.
The simplest solution is to use "helper" columns to break each category into its own series, which can then be independantly formatted. For instance, in Column D:
Here's an example of what it could look like:
To further simplify things, you can format your data as an Excel Table and that will speed up the creation of your categories by automatically filling the series data. Here's what it could look like:
Best Answer
I don't understand quite. What kind of graph do you want ? This ?
To get this, choose your chart as a linear type (xy scatter group). After that go to select data, and select x and y values by hand from series 1. After that, fix up a little your x axis properties, so the year shows every year, and not every two or so ... Might want to fix up the default look of the graph too.