How can I graph a series of launch dates in excel?
If you have nothing but dates, then you've got a one-dimensional
distribution. There's nothing wrong with that; it's what William
Cleveland calls a "point graph". But Excel expects two dimensions, so
give it some dummy data to keep it happy. Set up your table like this:
Launch date
05-Jun-08 1
17-Jun-08 1
18-Jun-08 1
22-Jun-08 1
24-Jun-08 1
and use the wizard to create a Line Chart. It should detect the dates
properly and set the x axis to "Time scale" or "Date scale" instead of
"Category". If not, then fix that manually. Format the chart to get rid
of all the things you don't want, and you should have a series of points
in a row, spread out from left to right in date order with the correct
gaps between dates.
If you want your series to go vertically, put the dummy data in the
first column and the dates in the second column, and choose an XY
(Scatter) chart instead.
For extra value, ask yourself if there's a second dimension of real info
you could be including, so you don't have to use a dummy and you can
give the viewers something richer to look at.
