I used an area block chart to show 2 items stacked on top of each other. Now
I want to add a 3rd item represented by points on each stack, connected by a
line. Any suggestions? Custom charts don't seem to work. (Using Excel 2003)
The key to making any of these charts work the way you want is to
realise that you can select the "chart type" of a *series*. In other
words, chart type is not limited to one type per chart, but can be as
many different types as you have items. You can even have one item be a
column chart, and another be a horizontal bar chart, even though the two
types can look very strange together on the same area!
(that can be exploited, if you know how: for instance, a horizontal
bar chart plus an XY scatter chart makes a "dot plot", which is
otherwise a type of graph utterly unknown to Excel)
So, you already have your two items. Use the menu to select
Chart.. Add Data...
then follow the instructions to add your third item. Either that, or you
can just start all over again with a new chart, this time selecting all
three items at once.
The third item will at first look just like another stacked block, but
don't despair. Right click on the item and select "Chart type", then
choose "Line", and that item will become the points and lines you want!
The built in chart types, even the so-called "Combination Chart" and
"Custom Chart", formats are useless at this stuff. But once you've
discovered you can make an individual "item" (i.e. series) be its own
type of chart, the sky's the limit to the different types of chart you
can mix up.
(the exception is Bubble Charts: they won't let you mix anything else
with them)
