Making a graph with easily changed dates

[Sean123]

My boss asked me to make a graph on one of his spreadsheets more user
friendly...so that you could put a start and end date in two ajacent cells
and the graph will automatically change to show the time between those dates.
I didn't think it was going to be too hard but now i'm completely
stumped...I've got the dates on the X-axis and 3 other lines that come from
data on another sheet...and i can't even get the X-axis to easily adjust to
two changeable dates (it will just show those two days rather than all the
days inbetween).....if anyone has any suggestions i'd greatly appreciate it.
thanks!

 

[smartin]

My boss asked me to make a graph on one of his spreadsheets more user
friendly...so that you could put a start and end date in two ajacent cells
and the graph will automatically change to show the time between those dates.
I didn't think it was going to be too hard but now i'm completely
stumped...I've got the dates on the X-axis and 3 other lines that come from
data on another sheet...and i can't even get the X-axis to easily adjust to
two changeable dates (it will just show those two days rather than all the
days inbetween).....if anyone has any suggestions i'd greatly appreciate it.
thanks!

Hi Sean123,

First google "excel chart dynamic ranges".

If you aren't familiar with named ranges and OFFSET (and probably INDEX
and MATCH) be prepared to spend some time getting familiar with the tool
set.

I very briefly previewed a few google results and can tell you these
look like good places to start your research. Sure there are others as well.

http://www.contextures.com/xlNames02.html
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA011098011033.aspx
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/ChartTips.htm

Once you have the technique down you can /really/ wow the boss by
placing dynamic controls on the chart itself.

I'm all about wowing the boss. Please post back if you get stuck!

 

[Sean123]

smartin,
Thanks for the reply...those links were really helpful! I think i've almost
got it figured out with one last hangup....I've got it so it will plot all
the appropriate data inbetween the dates, but I can't get the actual scale of
the x-axis to change as i change the start/finish data.... I've been checking
out those sources and haven't found anything, if you think you know a way
that'd be awesome....otherwise, for now i could just put a note below the
input dates instructing to change the scale of the x-axis accordingly

Thanks, hope you have a great weekend!

Sean

 

[Jon Peltier]

I think this link would have been the best place to start:

Dynamic Charting By Dates
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=246

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/

Advanced Excel Conference - June 17-18 2009 - Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009-06-ACNJ/AdvExcelConf200906ACNJ.html
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