Selectable data sets in graphs

[Laroche J]

I hadn't been on this forum for a while, so I'm delighted to see that people
from Microsoft, one being Mr. Todd Aton, are reading it regularly. Maybe
some messages can be heard better?

I make graphs with numerous data sets, one per year. I'd like to be able to
analyze my graphs with various combinations of those data sets.
Unfortunately Excel doesn't have a way to disable the display of selected
data sets, and I don't want to create a new graph for each combination I
want to explore.

So for future versions (or maybe 2008 has it already), is this something
that could be looked at?

JL
Mac OS X 10.4.11, Office v.X 10.1.9

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I hadn't been on this forum for a while, so I'm delighted to see that people
from Microsoft, one being Mr. Todd Aton, are reading it regularly. Maybe
some messages can be heard better?

I make graphs with numerous data sets, one per year. I'd like to be able to
analyze my graphs with various combinations of those data sets.
Unfortunately Excel doesn't have a way to disable the display of selected
data sets, and I don't want to create a new graph for each combination I
want to explore.

So for future versions (or maybe 2008 has it already), is this something
that could be looked at?

JL
Mac OS X 10.4.11, Office v.X 10.1.9

Yes, we're all glad Todd and others are reading these messages. Our concerns
are indeed being heard.

I'm not sure what you are trying to do, but it sounds like this is quite
possible currently. Simply define a name referring to the stuff you want to
plot. Then define names for all your data subsets. Then you can easily enter
a value on the datasheet of the data you want to plot and use the indirect
function to get to the right data.

If you will explain how your chart and data sets work, I'll explain in more
detail how to do this.

 

[Laroche J]

Bob Greenblatt wrote on 2008-04-02 08:32:

Yes, we're all glad Todd and others are reading these messages. Our concerns
are indeed being heard.

I'm not sure what you are trying to do, but it sounds like this is quite
possible currently. Simply define a name referring to the stuff you want to
plot. Then define names for all your data subsets. Then you can easily enter
a value on the datasheet of the data you want to plot and use the indirect
function to get to the right data.

If you will explain how your chart and data sets work, I'll explain in more
detail how to do this.

OK, here's the deal. I collect data on a monthly basis on a spreadsheet.
Then I have one spreadsheet per year, some dating back to 1992. I plot my
data so that the x-axis represents the months, with a line (or a set of
bars) for each year. Other graphs are of the XY-scatter type.

Now, on some graphs I have up to 15 data sets, which makes them hard to
isolate from each other. What I want is an easy and NON-DESTRUCTIVE way to
look at all data, or only to selected years in any combination. It seems
that would be easily implemented by adding a checkbox beside each series in
the Source Data window.

JL
Mac OS X 10.4.11, Office v.X 10.1.9

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

OK, here's the deal. I collect data on a monthly basis on a spreadsheet.
Then I have one spreadsheet per year, some dating back to 1992. I plot my
data so that the x-axis represents the months, with a line (or a set of
bars) for each year. Other graphs are of the XY-scatter type.

Now, on some graphs I have up to 15 data sets, which makes them hard to
isolate from each other. What I want is an easy and NON-DESTRUCTIVE way to
look at all data, or only to selected years in any combination. It seems
that would be easily implemented by adding a checkbox beside each series in
the Source Data window.

JL
Mac OS X 10.4.11, Office v.X 10.1.9

OK, I see your point about non-destructive. However, if you named your
dataset ranges, it would be pretty easy to edit the data series and delete
and/or add what you wanted. (The check box idea in the Data source window is
a good one. )This would be pretty easy to accomplish via code.
Unfortunately, the series() function in XLM is presently broken.