Adding several horizontal average bars onto scatter graphs

Is this a scatter plot or some other plot? My first thought is to use a scatter plot and add horizontal error bars and use the error bars to indicate the deviation of each point from the average. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...462.aspx?CTT=1

I don't know what your data looks like so I made up a very simple example of what I think you want.

I created a Date column, Series 1 to Series 3 columns and added a 5th column called Average that had the average for the 3 series data points.

The first chart was created by selecting the Date column and the 3 series columns and selecting the Scatter With Only Markers.

Next select the Plot Area of the graph. Click on the Design Tab and click on Select Data. Click on Add, enter a name, Select the X axis values (The Date column), select the Y axis values (the Average column). Click OK.

Click on one of the new data points for the Average (all data points for the Average will be selected. Right click on one of the data points selected and choose Format Data Series. Click on Marker Options, Built In and select the line. Click Close.

I added error bars then formatted the X axis error bars for the Average Series. Both the thickness and length of the bars can be altered by clicking on the error bar then click on the Format tab, Current Selection group and select the X axis Error bars. Click on Format Selection. There you will find various formatting choices. The Horizontal Error Bar selection will allow you to enter a value (a decimal value will decrease the size from the default). Line Style and Line Color will allow the choice of thickness and color.

You can have only the AVERAGE "Bars" but they are the short ones that you want to be longer and narrower which can't be done. If it is the vertical Error Bars that are the problem, they can be eliminated by selecting the Data Series (not the horizontal Error Bar), Click on the Layout tab, Error Bars, Error Amount, Fixed Values set at 0.0 and the vertical Error Bar will not be visible.

I eliminated the vertical Error Bar and slightly shortened the horizontal Error Bar to make it in my opinion look better.

You're welcome. Thank you for the feedback.

If that takes care of your original question, please select Thread Tools from the menu link above and mark this thread as SOLVED. Thanks.