Graphing Time Values in Excel

[ConfusedRandy]

I attached a mock of the graph I am trying to create. The date is in column A, time is in Column B and distance is in column C. The graph line is just as I want, but how do I show a date and possibly hour markers, such as days as a primary and every 6 as a secondary. My second question is when I do get dates to appear, the date labels on the bottom are inside my graph. How do I change this? I have attached a dumbed down version so you could see what I am graphing. Normally there are about 12,000 lines of data in the graph, I just posted a few lines so I can post. All help is greatly appreciated. If you know how to fix any of this stuff, please feel free to change and guide me where to find it. I seam to learn better this way (my head seams pretty thick most times).

Thanks,

Randy

[shg]

The dates were stored as text, so the the graph showed categories rather than values. I converted those to actual dates using text to columns, then added the time, then changed the chart to a scatter plot.

To get the dates below the axis, I double-clicked the y axis and ticked Value axis crosses at max value.

[ConfusedRandy]

Silly me, why didn't I think to check the y axis to control the x axis. That problem is solved. I am wondering about the voo doo that you did with the time/date info. How did you convert that from a text to a numerical value? Sorry I am a little slow with some of these conversion. Can you walk me though what you did.

Thanks,

Randy

[shg]

Selected the data column, Data > Text to columns, tick Delimited, Next, Next, tick Date, select YMD from the dropdown, Finish.

Then selected the Time column, Copy, selected the Data column, Edit > Paste Special, Add, Values

[ConfusedRandy]

thank you very much for that, now I have another problem. This is what my graph now looks like. Unfortunately the file is so large I cant paste it on the forum. When you click on the time value it did properly add the two, but it seams to only be graphing by date, not time included. Any ideas?

[shg]

That picture is not much help.

Suggess you trim the workbook to a managable size, zip, and attach.

[ConfusedRandy]

Let's try it again. I know I am missing something simple.

Randy

[shg]

Select the chart, Chart > Chart Type > XY Scatter

[ConfusedRandy]

Thank you very much for all your help. You have been a great help to me. One thing that I do not know is how can space my time out better on the bottom. I have no idea why it is plotting out like that. Every 6 hours seams simple, what it is doing I don't know. Any ideas?

[shg]

Double-click the x axis, set the major unit to 0.25.

[ConfusedRandy]

Thank you oh great one, it seams you really do know your Excel. I can't thank you enough for all this, and that should take care of my questions for today. Talk to you tomorrow (just kidding).

Enjoy the rest of the holidays,

Randy

[shg]

You're welcome; would you please mark the thread as Solved? (see forum rules for details)