Forum Discussion

Ted_W1855's avatar
Ted_W1855
Copper Contributor
Apr 25, 2021
Solved

Creating a chart

This I'm sure is super simple, and I feel super stupid. I'm attempting to create a simple chart in Excel from just 5 sets of data (Excel file attached). I want it to look like this, just updated. I am having a heckuva time getting the chart to work. Come on, what's the secret?

 

  • Ted_W1855 No real secrets, but the last four numbers in your list are texts. How did you enter them? Just retype them and it will work as desired.

4 Replies

  • Riny_van_Eekelen's avatar
    Riny_van_Eekelen
    Platinum Contributor

    Ted_W1855 No real secrets, but the last four numbers in your list are texts. How did you enter them? Just retype them and it will work as desired.

    • AlohaBill77's avatar
      AlohaBill77
      Copper Contributor
      Similar problem, and perhaps I haven't looked closely enough at the charts in the past. Data in Excel is in two columns, Date and Weight (for my dog). The weights graph correctly but the dates do not. By default, the dates on the horizontal axis go in one month increments from whatever the first date was. I want Excel to plot exactly what the data says. Is there a way to do that? The resulting chart works (in that it shows an overall trend) but it bugs me that the axis labels are exactly 1 month apart, and the actual data points are hidden unless you click on the chart, then click on the line. It does appear that the weights are "between" the axis labels, so the chart is technically correct.
      • Riny_van_Eekelen's avatar
        Riny_van_Eekelen
        Platinum Contributor

        AlohaBill77 Not really similar, so it would have been better to open a new thread fro your question.

         

        Right-click on the horizontal axis and choose to format it. Then you should see an option that sets the major units to 1 month. You can change it to 1 day, or 7 days, if you so desire. But it could clutter the axis, especially if you have many data points or if you are covering a long period.

        Example (screenshots taken on a Mac, but it's similar on a PC)

        From:

         

        To:

Resources