Adding more source data to existing scatter plot

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom

I have an existing scatter plot with quite a bit of data and must
frequently add more data. I have come up with at procedure for doing it,
but it is quite inefficient and I suspect that there exist shortcuts that
could save some time. Could somebody help me with making the process more
efficient?

1. First, I copy the data from an existing spreadsheet. Since there are
some non-applicable rows of data I cannot just copy the entire spreadsheet.
I go to the nth row and highlight everything from there to the last
(row,col). Is there a shortcut that could highlight from a known position
to the last (row,col) that has data in it?

2. Next, I have to go to the target spreadsheet and paste in the data. The
starting position is the first column, but several thousand lines down. I
drag the slider to get to it. Is there a shortcut that can get me to the
last row containing data? Better yet, is there a "paste special" that I
don't know about that just goes to the last row and pastes in data from the
clipboard?

3. Lastly, and most importantly, I then highlight the data series and go
and drag the highlighted areas for the x and y axes to encompass the
additional axes. Is there any way that I can use a shortcut to tell the
program to include all data (with the exception of the first 2 rows) in a
given pair of columns as the source data without actually going all the way
to the end of the data?

I would appreciate any suggestions.


Thanks,

Tom
 
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Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

[email protected] said:
I have an existing scatter plot with quite a bit of data and must
frequently add more data. I have come up with at procedure for doing it,
but it is quite inefficient and I suspect that there exist shortcuts that
could save some time. Could somebody help me with making the process more
efficient?

1. First, I copy the data from an existing spreadsheet. Since there are
some non-applicable rows of data I cannot just copy the entire spreadsheet.
I go to the nth row and highlight everything from there to the last
(row,col). Is there a shortcut that could highlight from a known position
to the last (row,col) that has data in it?
CTRL+SHIFT+END

2. Next, I have to go to the target spreadsheet and paste in the data. The
starting position is the first column, but several thousand lines down. I
drag the slider to get to it. Is there a shortcut that can get me to the
last row containing data? Better yet, is there a "paste special" that I
don't know about that just goes to the last row and pastes in data from the
clipboard?
Click to expand...
Select the first row that contains data. Then, CTRL+down arrow gets
you to the last row that contains data (as long as the data set
occupies a contiguous range).

No to your question about a paste special option.
3. Lastly, and most importantly, I then highlight the data series and go
and drag the highlighted areas for the x and y axes to encompass the
additional axes. Is there any way that I can use a shortcut to tell the
program to include all data (with the exception of the first 2 rows) in a
given pair of columns as the source data without actually going all the way
to the end of the data?
Click to expand...

See Dynamic Charts
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/newsgroups/dynamic_charts/index.html

Overall comments: (1) Good description of your problem. Made it easy
to help you. (2) You may be able to automate the whole process if you
can define 'nth row' (in Step 1). Turn on the macro recorder (Tools |
Macro > Record new macro...), do the above, and turn off the recorder.
XL will give you the necessary code. It may need some cleaning but by
and large it will do what you want.
 
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