Chart horizontals and verticals

[Oxalate]

Hello everyone,i'm new to these forums, this is my first post
anyway this year on college i've started to use Excel more actively and i have a couple of questions for those who have more expirience (and the will to answer )

i have a question about XY scatter charts
i've drawn chart like 31880413.jpg
it dosen't matter what those lines are

my question would be is there anyway to automatically add horizontal and vertical XY lines preferably dashed one's
you know, i choose some coordinate T(x,y) and i get vertical and horizontal axis lines
something like copyyt.jpg
that chart was edited in paint it's easy to do it if i have like 2-3 lines, but we have much more complex charts and that's where things get complicated
and if i edit it in some other program i loose Excel editing options
i use excel 2007, 2010

if there is a way can someone explain it please
thank you

[teylyn]

Hello,

please upload pictures to this forum. Imageshack is banned by my company firewall and I cannot see the pictures.

Use the "Go Advanced" button below and then the paper clip icon to attach files.

[teylyn]

Hello,

I managed to have a look at the images via some ways I'd rather not let our network guys know

The black lines can be achieved with Error Bars on individual data points. Now, can you upload the file that you used to create the chart? It is not apparent how many data points make up the red and the blue line.

You could use another data series with data points in the X and Y positions, then select that series and add vertical and horizontal error bars.

Select the series, then select the Error Bars command on the Layout ribbon. Open the Format Error Bars dialog and set the Vertical error bars to "Minus" and "percentage" with 100%. Similar for horizontal error bars.

Upload your file if you need help with this.

cheers,

[Oxalate]

hi, i've reuploaded the pictures using the attachments option
and here is the chart i've used to create those lines chart.xlsx
it's very simple chart, i've just wanted to show what my problem is
anyway can you help me now
and would there be any option for me to just pull a vertical or horizontal line like this
31880413.jpg (again, made in paint)
thx for you help

[teylyn]

Hello,

your source data for the XY chart does not follow the usual way of laying out XY chart data. The standard way is to lay out the data in two columns, one for X, one for Y. Your data is arranged in rows instead. This works, but it adds difficulty to the normal process, since it is less intuitive.

Let's re-arrange your data. See the attached file, where the data is arranged in columns.

Now on to the next step.

For the blue line, you have three actual data markers. If you want to use error bars on any of the data markers, select the blue line.

On the Layout tab of the Chart tools click the Error Bars drop-down and select "More Error Bars Options"

You will see the dialog for Vertical Error bars.
Select "minus", tick "Percentage" and enter 100 in the box next to percentage.

Leave the dialog open and in the drop-down on the very left of the Layout tab in the ribbon, select "Series 2 X error bars". The format dialog will switch to Format Horizontal error bars

Again, select "Minus" and "Percentage" with 100 as the value next to the Percentage radio button.

Now close the dialog.

Repeat the same process for the red line, i.e. select the data series, edit the Error Bars and set both the vertical and the horizontal error bars to "minus" and "percentage" with a value of 100.

If you want lines dropping down to the X and Y axis between your data points, you will need to add the co-ordinates of these data points to your data series.

see attached.

cheers,

[Oxalate]

i've looked at the charts and i have to say thank you mister
you've helped me a lot and made my job much easier
i just have another question, is there any way to make those error lines dashed?
if not it's ok
ty again

[teylyn]

Hello,

yes, you can make the lines dashed. On the Layout ribbon of the Chart tools, use the drop down box on the very left and select the "Series 1 X error bars" or "Series 1 Y error bars". Then click the "Format selection" command below the drop down. In the Format dialog, select "line style" in the nav panel on the left and then select a Dash type.

And, by the way, I'm not a "mister". There are a few people who can do Excel and yet do not have a Y chromosome. Gasp!!!

[Oxalate]

........my deepest apologies miss/ms
P.S in my defence i couldn't have known

[teylyn]

No worries. Happens all the time. I only allow myself to point it out every two weeks. Hint: my avatar is not exactly what a man would use. My profile has some additional info.

I'm used to it. Maybe, one day, I'll change my avatar to

(.) (.)

and see how far that gets me.