ordering series one completely after each other (multiple X-axis?)

[Benjamin]

Hello,

I have a set of 250 items describing the same event for different items over
the last years.
I would like to chart these items and still be able to differenciate them by
year.

ex:
Year Item Value
1995 A 10
1995 B 10
1995 C 9
1995 D 8
1996 E 10
1996 F 8
1996 G 6
.... and so on

If I leave a blank line between 1995 and 1996 items then I can then spot the
gap from one year to another on the chart but it is not very practical as all
the data markers are the same color. Of course I can manually change the
color for each of the 250 items but then every time I add a new item or sort
the items differently in my table I need to change the colors again.

Is there any other way to represent the data with Excel 2000?

Maybe with multiple X-axis (for year and item), maybe by creating series for
each year and then ordering the series one completely after each other.

Thanks for your help-
Benjamin

 

[Barb R.]

Have you tried using a stacked bar chart? It's easier to do if the data is
in this format:
A B C D E F G
1995 10 10 9 8
1996 10 8 6

 

[Benjamin]

Indeed, that's exactely what I'm looking for!
With some minor arrangements in my table I can easily get there.
Thanks for the help-

 

[Jon Peltier]

I know I'm late to the dance, but this page shows how to do this kind of
conditional chart formatting with formulas do make it less burdensome to
make changes later:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ConditionalChart1.html

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
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