y-error bars on data points within a series

[Joanna]

I am using excel 2000. I am some fellow grad students
all have a question regarding an easier method to place
indivual y error bars for data point within a series. For
example. I have germination data for 10 sites. The data
I want on the chart is actually an average for each site,
so I would like to put the standard deviation on each
data point individually. But, all of the data points
will have the same error bars unless I list each data
point as its own series. This takes a long time and is
quite a hassle. Is there anyway to do this without
having to do each data point as it's own series.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Jon Peltier]

Joanna -

One of the options for error bars is "Custom", which allows you to
define different error bars for each point by selecting a range
containing the individual values. Suppose your data in A16 looks like
this:

Y vals neg err pos err
1 3.67 0.70 0.67
2 3.96 0.29 0.56
3 3.66 0.07 0.10
4 3.93 0.81 0.97
5 3.68 0.52 0.93

You would select A1:B6 to generate your chart. Double click the series,
click on the Y Error Bars tab, select the Custom option, then click in
the Positive box and select D26 with your mouse, and click in the
Negative box, and select C2:C6.

- Jon