Help with Excel's Chart Making

acollinsacollins
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I need to make a chart in Excel for an economics class I'm taking, and I'm very frustrated. The data is organized like this:



------Jan--Feb--Mar--Apr--May ...

1980--5----3----3----4----6 ...

1981--7----6----5----7----8 ...

1982--4----6----5----4----6 ...



The statistics are price levels, sampled monthly.



I want to draw a simple line graph with the years along the x-axis, but with each monthly value plotted. The thing is, I'm supposed to plot the data continuously. So there's only supposed to be one line in the chart.



When I try to use the damn Chart Wizard, it draws a different line for each year, which I don't want. We all know how great the included documentation of Office v.X is, and the on-screen help just points me to the damn Chart Wizard again.



I'd be much obliged for any help or pointers that are offered.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    If I have understood you correctly you want the early years towards the left, and the latter ones to the right.



    like this ?

    Click For Bigger Image



    To the best of my knowledge, you would have to re-order the data in the sheet.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    acollinsacollins Posts: 60member
    Yeah, Gargoyle, that's what I ended up having to do. Thanks a lot for the input.



    Andrew
  • Reply 3 of 6
    skipjackskipjack Posts: 263member
    Try this:



    Select your chart. You should have a "Chart" menu.

    Select "Source data"

    Select the "Series" tab

    Delete all but one series

    Select your X and Y values. If you select discontinuous ranges of data, you should get something like "$A$2:$A$22+$B$1:$B$21" for data in column B rows 1 to 21 concatenated to the data in column A rows 2 to 22.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    You could do each one as a separate series and then just change the marker, lines and color to all look the same. You need to add the year to the month to do that.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    acollinsacollins Posts: 60member
    I really appreciate all the help, guys. This has been my first real use of Excel, and it's been quite a learning experience. I would like to take the time to really learn it and understand its features. It seems like quite a program, Microsoft notwithstanding.



    Thanks for the detailed support. It certainly made this project easier!!



  • Reply 6 of 6
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    When you uses the solver to do optimizations you thought was only possible in Matlab or something like it ... get back to us
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