Making Charts in Excel 2003
I have provided some simple instructions for making graphs or “charts” using an Excel program. This will save you a lot of time instead of graphing all the points by hand. Familiarize yourself with the flowing instructions. If you still have any problems, please come see me or contact me and I can walk you through this. 1) Open the Excel file 2) Click on the first data point in a data column that you want to graph. Choose the column of data that you want plotted on the y-axis (vertical axis). 3) While holding down the key, click on the last number that you want to graph. The entire column of numbers should be highlighted. 4) Click on the button located in the tool bar at the top of the page (it should look like a 3-D bar chart in blue, yellow and red. 5) Choose XY (scatter) and click . 6) Click on at the top of the window. Notice that the row you highlighted is listed in the “Y Values” window. You are now going to add the data for your x-axis into the “X values” window. 7) Click on the at the far right end of the “X Values” cell. This will compress the entire window that you had been working in. You now need to highlight the data column that you wanted plotted on the x-axis. Click on and highlight the first data cell in the column of x-axis data. Hold down the key and then scroll down and click on the last data cell in that column (hold the key down the entire time to make sure you highlight the entire column of data) 8) Click on the symbol in the far right of the now compressed window. This will open up the window and a small version of your graph should be displayed in that window. 9) Click on the key. This brings you to the chart options window. You can click on the legend and label you axes, or alter the gridlines here. 10) Click . You now have a choice as to where in the Excel you want the chart displayed. If you click “as new sheet”, it will place your charts as new worksheets in your file and it will be easier to keep them in order. 11) To reverse the graph axes: right click on the axis you want to change and choose “format axis” in the pull down menu. Go to the “scale” tab and “check” the “values in reverse order” box. 12) Print out the file. 13) Note: At the end of this exercise you will have a plot showing the two variables. If you have done a depth plot, the depths may be reversed, (greatest depth at top of chart). Keep this in mind when you are interpreting the data or simply make all your depth/pressure numbers negative prior to entering them in the chart wizard. Note: You can also enter two columns of data simultaneously into the chart wizard by highlighting the first column of data as described above, but use the key instead of the key when highlighting the second column of data, especially if the data columns are not contiguous.