Combination Chart Problem

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
dee said:

Hi again - thanks for your detailed message. So, basically, if I understand
correctly, because my data is "scaleable", such as cel/far temperature, it
isn't possible to have markers that correspond on the two axis. The only way
to reflect the value for a certain amount is to add the labels as per your
instructions.

Basically, your data has two completely independent dimensions to it, so
it's got two degrees of freedom. In any year the data could have a
certain quantity, and then a certain price, and the quantity and the
price are free to be any value independently of each other. So if you're
going to represent year, quantity and price all in one line on a
two-dimensional surface, you've got to make the most of the two
dimensions by letting one of them be the quantity, and the other be the
price, in a graph of *orthogonal coordinates* (orthogonal being a fancy
word for "at right angles to each other".

(Temperature doesn't have this problem because every centigrade
temperature forces a fahrenheit temperature, and vice versa: it's only
got one degree of freedom, leaving you with a spare dimension to display
your years in)

If you want price and quantity to be in *parallel coordinates*, you'll
need to have two lines, one of them quantity against year, and the other
one price against year. If you want price and quantity in one line, you
have to drop the year (or somehow twist the line into a third
dimension). Labelling the point with their year is still possible
though, so that's good.

So you have two graphs to choose from, an Excel Line Chart type with two
lines, and an Excel XY (Scatter) Chart type with one line, neatly
labelled so you can see the years. Why not try both, and see which your
audience prefers. Sometimes it's good to show the same data two
different ways, as it brings out different features.

--
Del Cotter
NB Personal replies to this post will send email to ,
which goes to a spam folder-- please send your email to del3 instead.