Comments on: Excel - relative vs. absolute chart time

Question: Excel - relative vs. absolute chart time

ObscureReferenceMan — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:30:25 -0800

Excel question on charting time - how to make it appear relative, not absolute?

I want to create a chart of multiple occurances of intermittently timed items, but I want the times to appear properly spaced along the X-axis (with # of occurances on the Y-axis). However, Excel wants to make each timed occurance uniformly spaced. For example... The columns of times and number are:
8:00am, 3 times
8:03am, 1 time
8:10am, 2 times
9:00am, 4 times

Excel gives me a nice evenly spaced bar chart like this:
4|..........x.
3|.x..........
2|.......x....
1|....x.......
+ ----------

But I want a more correct one like this:
4|.................x.
3|.x.................
2|.........x.........
1|....x..............
+ ---------------

Sorry if there is a blantanly obvious answer to this, but googling various terms was not helpful. Follow-up: Anyone know of a good Excel help site(s)?

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:32:58 -0800

You need an X-Y chart, not column or line.

By: paduasoy

paduasoy — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:58:22 -0800

Mr Excel - in answer to your follow-up.

By: miagaille

miagaille — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 09:19:45 -0800

An almost identical question was asked before, though I don't think the poster got a completely satisfactory answer.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:02:06 -0800

Under chart type in the chart wizard, choose "XY (Scatter)."

By: ObscureReferenceMan

ObscureReferenceMan — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:22:27 -0800

GuyZero (and DevilsAdvocate) - thanks! I knew should have looked there. Duh!

And thanks for the link, paduasoy. I'll be checking it out directly.