Excel line graph help

**joshobrien1991** · 06-25-2013, 10:11 PM

Hi all,

This has been causing much stress and confusion for me last few days and i just cant seem to get what it to work out the way i want.

Need to create a line graph with some time data from past few months, the data is in minute/seconds format eg:04.02, 05.30 ect ect.

Im wanting to create a line graph with two series, one series if for these times which have been achieved in the month, the other series is the times being aimed for which is 03:30 every month (so will essentially be a straight line across the graph.

I have had no trouble actually graphing the data itself, the issue is with the scale of the y axis, im trying to get the scale to show even 00:30 increases and excel automatically makes the scale.

Is there anyway to have a custom scale of 30 second increases on excel?

Any help would be much appreciated

**Spencer101** · 06-26-2013, 02:27 AM

Could you post some example data with your graph so far?

**joshobrien1991** · 06-26-2013, 02:47 AM

Here is some data o have so far

Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13

07:02 05:18 07:32 06:12 05:32 05:26 04:05
03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30 03:30

The 03:30's are whats expected, and the above results are whats being achieved, is it possible to have 30 second increases along the y axis?

**Spencer101** · 06-26-2013, 04:24 AM

Is this what you mean?

**joshobrien1991** · 06-26-2013, 07:10 PM

that is exactly what i mean!

Thank you so much, how did you do it?

**joshobrien1991** · 06-27-2013, 03:25 AM

just tring to get my head around it all...

so for example if i have data of higher values eg

Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13

TEAM RESULTS 16:21 15:11 16:11 14:27 16:04 14:37 15:11
TEAM AIM 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30

How would i format the graph so that i could chart these with highest value showing 20:00?

**Spencer101** · 06-27-2013, 04:18 AM

Have a look at the bottom graph in the attached.
If you right click the values on the Y axis and select "Format Axis" then look at the values for "Maxium" and "Major Unit".

By changing these to "Fixed" rather than "Auto" you can specify the max scale and intermittent measurements.

In the case of this new graph I have presumed the times are in hours and minutes rather than minutes and seconds (may be wrong on that though!).
So by setting the Maximum to 0.8333333 (which is the number Excel uses for 20:00) the scale tops out at that and by using 0.0208333 (which is the number Excel uses for 00:30) for the Major Unit the intermittent measurements are set at half hour intervals. You could change this to hourly intervals for example by using 0.0416666 for the Major Unit, the scale would be set to hourly intervals.

Hopefully that makes sense. It's a little bit of trial and error to get it right, but nothing too drastic.

If the scale for the second graph SHOULD be in minutes and seconds then you can just adjust these two settings to suit.

Let me know if you need more help with this.

S.