Excel 2000: How do I make a simple chart with *two* value axes?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sherry Listgarten
  • Start date Start date
S

Sherry Listgarten

I am struggling to do something very basic in Excel 2000.
I'm starting to think it is impossible, which is hard to
imagine. So, can someone help?

In a nutshell, the problem is that Excel seems to specify
only one "value" axis, with the other being a "category"
axis. Whereas I want two value axes. Is there a way to do
that?

If you didn't understand that...

Let's say I have three lines I want to plot:

Line #1: (1, 10), (10, 20), (50, 30)
Line #2: (1, 15), (10, 25), (50, 35)
Line #3: (1, 17), (10, 27), (50, 37)

So each line has x values 1, 10, and 50.
The y values range from 10-37 or so.

The Excel table representing the above values looks like
this:

Line1 Line2 Line3
1 10 15 17
10 20 25 27
50 30 35 37

When I make a chart/graph of this in Excel, I want Excel
to distribute the y-axis between 0 and 40 (more or less),
but ALSO to distribute the x-axis between 0 and 50 (more
or less).

What Excel seems to want to do is pick one or the other,
but not both. So, for example, it'll distribute the y-axis
between 0 and 40, but then the x-axis becomes a "category
axis", and has the values 1, 10, and 50 evenly spaced,
instead of distributed numerically throughout a range.

It is very important for my data that both the x-data and
y-data be distributed numerically along their respective
axis. There are no "category" values.

Is there another way to organize the data and/or to pick
the chart type so it knows what I want it to display?

I'd appreciate *any* info on this.

The version of Excel I am using is: 9.0.4402 (SR-1)

My email address is (e-mail address removed)

Thanks!

-- Sherry.
 
Okay, I'll answer my own question here -- use a "Scatter"
plot. There's an option that does connect the points in
each series with a line.

Odd name, but it's the right choice for this type of
problem.

-- Sherry.
 
Glad you got that straightened out and thanks for letting folks know.
For a long time the XY Scatter chart was the only chart that supported
cardinal values along the x axis. Then, with some version of XL, and I
don't remember which, MS extended the line chart so that if it had
dates along the x-axis it too could, optionally, be treated as having
cardinal values!

--
Regards,

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