Basic line graph
July 10, 2012 4:46 PM Subscribe
Program for drawing a line graph (on graph paper?)?
I'm trying to draw a line graph (three lines -- 1 with 6 data points, 1 with 3 data points and 1 with 3 data points) over several months. (Each data point is a number associated with a particular date, and the time frame is 12 months.) Every person in my office who is good at Excel has not been able to do this -- the person with the most experience says that the months are all squished together or spaced apart depending on data points. I have tried four people in my office.
Is there a program that will just pull up a piece of graph paper and let me draw on it with lines? Or any other ideas?
Assume that I don't know how to do anything like this.
I'm trying to draw a line graph (three lines -- 1 with 6 data points, 1 with 3 data points and 1 with 3 data points) over several months. (Each data point is a number associated with a particular date, and the time frame is 12 months.) Every person in my office who is good at Excel has not been able to do this -- the person with the most experience says that the months are all squished together or spaced apart depending on data points. I have tried four people in my office.
Is there a program that will just pull up a piece of graph paper and let me draw on it with lines? Or any other ideas?
Assume that I don't know how to do anything like this.
Sounds like you might want something like the Graphing Calculator application that used to be bundled with MacOS. It's still available for Windows and Macintosh.
If all you want is a grid you can draw on, Inkspace should suffice.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:55 PM on July 10, 2012
If all you want is a grid you can draw on, Inkspace should suffice.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:55 PM on July 10, 2012
You really ought to be able to do this in Excel. Is there anyone more knowledgable to talk to? If you can wait until tomorrow for a plot, you can memail me the data.
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 5:14 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 5:14 PM on July 10, 2012
Yeah, you can do this in Excel. You need to create an X-Y (Scatter) plot, and have individual X and Y axis data for each data set. I found I had to right click/Ctrl-click (Mac) on the chart area, and choose the Select Data ... option. You can then add each data set, and it will appear as individual lines.
I'll memail a link to a spreadsheet example.
posted by scruss at 5:33 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'll memail a link to a spreadsheet example.
posted by scruss at 5:33 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
You absolutely can do this in Excel. I just tested it myself. Looks like scruss is going to hook you up with a link.
posted by grouse at 5:35 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by grouse at 5:35 PM on July 10, 2012
Response by poster: Thank you everyone ... my people here were able to do it in Excel, but the months were not "to scale" as it were. I will muddle along and/or send data to Tooty tomorrow if need be. Love you guys & gals!
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 5:58 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 5:58 PM on July 10, 2012
Yes, feel free to e-mail me data if you want, I can definitely get the months to scale properly.
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 6:01 PM on July 10, 2012
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 6:01 PM on July 10, 2012
If you figure it out, can you post how you did it? (It sounded simple to me too, but I couldn't get excel to do it without connecting the datapoints by hand.)
posted by tinymegalo at 2:35 PM on July 11, 2012
posted by tinymegalo at 2:35 PM on July 11, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Chekhovian at 4:51 PM on July 10, 2012