charting locations over time instead of numbers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
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Guest

I am new to charts in Excel. But nothing I have found leads me to believe
the following is possible for Excel, hence the question.

My three variables are: location, date, and mission number (two letters
followed by a four digit number in a single cell). All three variables are
related in my worksheet by row, with column headers across the top of the
worksheet.

For my chart, I want to have the various locations displayed vertically on
the side of the chart on the y axis, with the associated date displayed
horizontally across the x axis of the chart. I'd like to have the mission
number displayed on the chart at the intersection of the correct
location/date position (could be a label on the data point or similar). In
the perfect chart option, when a mission occurred at the same location as a
previous mission, I'd like in on the same vertical position on the chart and
simply moved horizontally based on the date.

Anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance
 
Bullseye:

It sounds like you want to make a dot plot. you want location on Y axis,
date on X axis and you want to label point with mission number.

A dot plot is an XY chart with a custom Y axis that displays text rather
than numbers.

Here's a link to a how-to example on my website.
http://processtrends.com/pg_charts_dot_plots.htm

I also have a discussion on custom axes which will show you details of how
to make a custom axis. http://processtrends.com/pg_charts_custom_axis.htm

Kelly

http://processtrends.com
 
Kelly,

This is a great option...just one problem. I have gone everything thing you
show in your examples...but for some reason I run into a problem in step 4.
When I paste special, I get the vertical pight purple squares on the y-axis,
but it also moves all my data points into a vertical column as well instead
of leaving them where they were. I must be doing something wrong but I have
tried variations and they all give the same result. Any thoughts? Thanks
again for pointing my in this direction. At least I can now successfully
plot two of my three variables :-)

Bullseye
 
This is a great option...just one problem. I have gone everything thing you
show in your examples...but for some reason I run into a problem in step 4.
When I paste special, I get the vertical pight purple squares on the y-axis,
but it also moves all my data points into a vertical column as well instead
of leaving them where they were.
Click to expand...

It sounds as if you've got the "Replace existing categories" box
checked. Uncheck it to avoid the range of zeroes being used for every
series x-values.
 
Bullseye:

On the Paste Special window Options:

1. Upper left: Check Add cells as: Select new series
2. Lower left: Check Categories (X values in First Column)
3. Replace Existing Categories: Uncheck Replace Existing Categories

....Kelly
 
I tried that a few times, no help. I think I may be failing in a more basic
way. According to what I see in your picture in the tutorial, it appears
that the source for the paste special (ie the selection I have copied at the
time) are the column of zero's and the column of number series zero through
whatever the number of rows I have...is this correct? Is there something
else I am missing? It seems so simple, yet everthing I do, it moves all my
data plots into a vertical column. thoughts? Thanks again for your time &
expertise!
 
I show how to make this kind of chart on my web site. Perhaps a different
set of words might help you get it:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/DotPlot.html
Click to expand...

But beware, that's not just a different set of words, but a slightly
different technique: Kelly's technique uses all XY series and a labelled
dummy series for the category Y-axis; Jon's technique uses a horizontal
bar chart series for the category Y-axis instead.

A third tutorial that I like (it's the one I learned dot plots on) is
Charley Kyd's at ExcelUser.com:

http://www.exceluser.com/dash/dotplot.htm

The technique here is similar to that in Jon's tutorial: horizontal bar
chart for the labels, XY series for the dots.
 
I forgot that Kelly uses a different combination. The bar chart axis labels
are sometimes more robust, particularly in that you often can get longer
text before Excel forces a line break.

- Jon
 
I guess I go in cycles. Sometimes I prefer one way, sometimes the other. If
it's a uniformly spaced set of labels, sometimes the bar chart seems like
less hassle than defining a bunch of data labels. If it requires a whole set
of customizations, like a panel chart, then the XY series is better because
the scale you define gets reused for different purposes (axis ticks,
gridlines, etc.). I chose a bar chart for the dot plot because it's uniform,
and if you need to extend the axes, you don't have to redefine a set of data
labels.

- Jon
 
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