Bar Graphs, Semi-Log Graphs

[Albert A. Bartlett]

Dear Friends,

I have the Millennium 2000 edition of Excel and I can't
figure out how to make
a) bar graphs of one variable vs. time. (all the options
seem to be for two variables.)
b) semi-logarithmic graphs.

With my previous computer I had the Excel that went with
Windows 95, and the Chart Wizard had options you could
check for either one variable bar graphs or for semi-log
graphs. In the Millennium 2000 I don't find either of
these options with the Chart Wizard.

Question No. 1: At the bookstore I see an expensive
upgrade I can purchase to upgrade Millennium to Windows
XP. Does this upgrade have the charting capabilities at
least as good as those of Windows 95, or are they degraded
to the level of those in Millennium 2000?

Question No. 2: Why would Microsoft degrade a very useful
Chart Wizard in Windows 95 to the much less useful one of
Millennium 2000?

With thanks and best wishes, I am,

Sincerely,

Albert A. Bartlett
Professor Emeritus of Physics
University of Colorado at Boulder, 80309-0390

 

[Tushar Mehta]

[This followup was posted to microsoft.public.excel.charting with an
email copy to Albert A. Bartlett.
Please use the newsgroup for further discussion.]

First, let's address the operating system vs. Excel issue. Most
likely, XL was loaded on your computer at the time you purchased the
computer. However, there is no relation between XL (or any other
Office product -- Word, PowerPoint, Access, etc.) and the operating
system (Win 98, Win ME, Win XP) etc. It is indeed unfortunate that MS
has a tendency of choosing product names and version ids that confuse
people.

OK, so you don't need to upgrade Win ME to Win XP if you want to use a
different version of XL (XL97, XL2000, XL2002, etc.) However, you
don't need to change your version of XL either.

Whatever version of XL you have on your computer (my guess would be XL
2000) is quite capable of doing what you want to do. MS hasn't changed
XL's charting module in any significant manner for a long, long time.
The differences you see between the previous computer and the new one
are probably due to minor tweaks made by MS but also because of your
computer's configuration (templates, default charts, user defined
charts, etc.)

On to your specific requests: I don't know what you mean by a one-
variable bar graph vs. time, but I suppose it consists of x-values
representing time and y-values representing whatever it is you wish to
plot. If so, it will help a lot if there is an empty cell at the top
of the date values but not on top of the data values. Something like:

B C
2 Price
3 1-Jan 1
4 2-Jan 1.045

Select the two columns that contain the dates and the variable values
and include the top row (row 2 in the example above). In the Chart
Wizard, select the Bar (or Column?) chart. In the next step, ensure
that XL plots the first column as x-values.

If you have date-time values that represent a finer division of a day,
XL (depending on what version of it you have) may verticlaly cluster
data for each day. If so, select the chart, then select Chart | Chart
Options... | Axes tab. Set the Category (X) values options to
'Category' (it is probably Automatic or Time-Scale).

As far as semi-log charts go, just create the chart of interest without
any log scale. Now, double-click the y-axis and in the Scale tab check
the 'Logarithmic scale' option.

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Regards,

Tushar Mehta, MS MVP -- Excel
www.tushar-mehta.com
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