Scatter plot changes to line plot with data gaps

In article ,
says...
John & dvt --
You guys are so very helpful. Thanks!!

I don't understand the *not* entry? Why is it good
practice to put that (or a blank cell?) above the actual
start of the data range?

I don't consider it good practice. Columns need headers for any number
of reasons. Just because some moron at MS decided a blank header was
easy to interpret as the x-axis values doesn't make it good practice to
actually do so.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
MS MVP Excel 2000-2003
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA tutorials and add-ins
Custom Productivity Solutions leveraging MS Office


In article ,
says...
John & dvt --
You guys are so very helpful. Thanks!!

I don't understand the *not* entry? Why is it good
practice to put that (or a blank cell?) above the actual
start of the data range?

2nd. I jumped at your idea and tried a conditional that
places another cell that is really blank, rather than "",
but to my dismay, it fills them all with zero, not the
contents of that cell. e.g.

= if(N5="",$S$1,I5) places zero in the cell, not the
true blank that is in cell S1.

I don't see why this doesn't work. !??

The macro will probably be my solution...



And a curiosity: What is actually IN a cell that has ""
pasted without the quotes? Is it an ASCII char? Something
must really BE there for it to tell the diff from a truly
empty cell...

Thanks again.



Another suggestion that might help is one that Jon often
proposes. Put a
label in the cell above the y data but *not* above the x
data. So if your
data were in A2:B200, put some text in B1 but leave A1
blank. Now select
A1:B200 as your source data.

While I consider this a good practice, it has no effect on
a Scatter
chart. But I do it anyway out of habit.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

.

dvt wrote:
If
anyone ever comes up with an FAQ for this group,

Microsoft Excel Charting FAQs
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...cle.asp?ID=209

...Gaps in Chart Series; Blanks Chart as Zero
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...?ID=209#jon020

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

Tushar -

Okay, maybe it's not "good" in terms of worksheet practice, it screws up
filtering, and if you sort, the column is listed as "(Column A)" instead
of something more descriptive. But it's consistent practice in terms of
charting. Most of the time, the header is something like "Date",
"Time", or some category description, so it's self explanatory without
the header anyway. I find it easier to make my chart this way than to
always interact with the Source Data step of the Chart Wizard.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

Tushar Mehta wrote:
In article ,
says...

John & dvt --
You guys are so very helpful. Thanks!!

I don't understand the *not* entry? Why is it good
practice to put that (or a blank cell?) above the actual
start of the data range?


I don't consider it good practice. Columns need headers for any number
of reasons. Just because some moron at MS decided a blank header was
easy to interpret as the x-axis values doesn't make it good practice to
actually do so.

What does 'consistent practice' mean? That if the column contains only
numbers and if the first row is empty then it represents X values?

Would be a heck of a lot better for the chart wizard to have the same
capability as the mini-wizard that adds a new data to a chart('First
column contains x values')!

--
Regards,

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

In article ,
says...
Tushar -

Okay, maybe it's not "good" in terms of worksheet practice, it screws up
filtering, and if you sort, the column is listed as "(Column A)" instead
of something more descriptive. But it's consistent practice in terms of
charting. Most of the time, the header is something like "Date",
"Time", or some category description, so it's self explanatory without
the header anyway. I find it easier to make my chart this way than to
always interact with the Source Data step of the Chart Wizard.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

Tushar Mehta wrote:
In article ,
says...

John & dvt --
You guys are so very helpful. Thanks!!

I don't understand the *not* entry? Why is it good
practice to put that (or a blank cell?) above the actual
start of the data range?


I don't consider it good practice. Columns need headers for any number
of reasons. Just because some moron at MS decided a blank header was
easy to interpret as the x-axis values doesn't make it good practice to
actually do so.

Tushar -

The way it used to in Excel 5, you mean? Actually I'd prefer something
like this:

First __ column(s) contain X values
First __ row(s) contain series names

Once I got used to this practice, the blanks provide a convenient way to
specify these rows and columns. It's not perfect, and not ideal, but
I've learned to use it to my advantage.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

Tushar Mehta wrote:
What does 'consistent practice' mean? That if the column contains only
numbers and if the first row is empty then it represents X values?

Would be a heck of a lot better for the chart wizard to have the same
capability as the mini-wizard that adds a new data to a chart('First
column contains x values')!