How do I fit everything on the graph clearly?

[martin0642]

Hi all,

Bit of a knotty problem. I have a line graph showing numbers usin
particular drugs, as reported to various agencies, by quarter. Eac
line represents the numbers reporting use of each drug within eac
quarter. (One line for each drug)
All is fine until we throw heroin into the plot. Without it, each lin
is clearly spaced and its fairly easy to read the graph.

The problem with throwing heroin in as well (which we really need t
do) is that the numbers are so high it inflates the scale and all th
other drugs end up squashed down the bottom of the graph.

So...Is there a way in Excel to have the y axis split about halfway u
so we can represent all the drugs without heroin artificially squashin
everything else down?

Hopefully i've explained that well enough!!!

Any clues folks

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

Here are some examples of splitting the Y axis. They are for column
charts but the technique should suit your data. Normally Line charts can
be more difficult especially if a line spans the break but it doesn't
sound like your data is doing that.

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/BrokenYAxis.html
http://tushar-mehta.com/excel/newsgroups/broken_y_axis/tutorial/index.html
http://www.andypope.info/charts/brokencolumn.htm

Cheers
Andy

 

[David Biddulph]

Hi all,

Bit of a knotty problem. I have a line graph showing numbers using
particular drugs, as reported to various agencies, by quarter. Each
line represents the numbers reporting use of each drug within each
quarter. (One line for each drug)
All is fine until we throw heroin into the plot. Without it, each line
is clearly spaced and its fairly easy to read the graph.

The problem with throwing heroin in as well (which we really need to
do) is that the numbers are so high it inflates the scale and all the
other drugs end up squashed down the bottom of the graph.

So...Is there a way in Excel to have the y axis split about halfway up
so we can represent all the drugs without heroin artificially squashing
everything else down?

Hopefully i've explained that well enough!!!

Any clues folks?

As an alternative approach, ave you tried changing the Y scale to
logarithmic?