How to plot a function in Word

[Jim Cobban]

I wish to include an illustration of a plot of a pair of functions in a MS
Word document. I have looked through the documentation of Word, Excel, and
even Corel Draw, and I cannot find anything that permits me to create such
an illustration.

Specifically I wish to display a plot which shows the functions y=x^2 and
y=sqrt(2x). Those are both parabolas, one open upward, the other open to
the right. However that is just the first such illustration in the document
I am trying to create.

I see such illustrations frequently in books and articles about mathematical
subjects, but I cannot figure out how to create them with the tools at hand.
Ideally I want the plot to be imbedded as a line drawing rather than as a
bit image (GIF or JPEG), since that would facilitate re-scaling the drawing
without sacrificing image quality.

--
Jim Cobban (e-mail address removed)
34 Palomino Dr.
Kanata, ON, CANADA
K2M 1M1
+1-613-592-9438

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Jim

Word can't do what you want, but Excel can.

This is how I would do it. In the cells of one column, type 1, 2, 3 ...
10. Let's say you started at A1. In B1 do =A1^2. Copy that formula down
the column. Select all your used cells, click the Charting Wizard
button, choose an XY Scatter Plot, then choose the one with smoothed
lines and click Finish. You can then edit your chart to suit your needs.
And, you'll have to add another series for the second function.

However, the people over at the microsoft.public.excel.charting
newsgroup would have much more info to offer and, for all I know, a
better way to do this.

When you've got your chart looking good in Excel, click on it and choose
Edit > Copy. Back in Word, choose Edit > Paste Special and choose
Picture, either linked or not as you need. You'll then be able to scale
as you need. But it's a lot easier if you create the chart in the first
place in roughly the same size as you want it in the Word document, not
least because you then end up with text (eg on axes) at about the right
size.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

 

[Kate G.]

Why can you use use Microsoft Graph to do it (INSERT --> OBJECT -->
Microsoft Graph???)

Should let you do the same thing!