Introduction
This mini-tutorial consists of the
following segments. For every thumbnail you encounter click on
it to see the original in a new window.
Understanding the
problem
Getting started
Rescale and hide the
y-axis
Add the zero marker
Add the line
segment for the 'y axis'
Add the
break indicator for the 'y axis'
Create a XY Scatter chart such
that the y-axis looks like it starts at zero, breaks, resumes at
some value and is then a continuous line. In effect, the
resulting graph should look like below.
Note that this technique works only with a XY Scatter Chart.
Figure 1
The example below graphs the
following data:
Figure 2
Start off with a default graph
(Figure 3) and adjust the format to get the graph in Figure 4.
|
Figure 3 |
Figure 4 |
Double-click on the y-axis (or
select it and then select the menu item Format | Selected axis...)
Set the y-axis scale such that the
minimum is 6 and the maximum is 10 (Figure 5). In the Patterns
tab set the Lines to None and the Tick mark labels to None (Figure
6) to get the result in Figure 7.
To do so, add the data point x=0,
y=6 as below. Remember that the y-axis minimum was set to 6.
Hence, the 'zero' marker is actually a y-value of 6.
First, the data point x and y
values are entered in the cells as in Figure 8.
Figure 8
Select the chart and
select the menu item Chart | Add Data... In the resulting
dialog box set the range to the cells containing the value (0,6) as
in Figure 10 and in the Paste Special... dialog box make sure to
select the option 'New Series' and, also, make sure to check the 'X
values in first column' box (see Figure 11).
|
Figure 9 |
Figure 10 |
Figure 11 |
Edit the new point by
double-clicking on it and in the resulting dialog box set the marker
to none (Figure 12), and set the data labels to 'Show Label' as in
Figure 13. Format the data label by double-clicking on it.
In the Format Data Labels dialog box, set the Label Position to Left
(see Figure 14).
Figure 12 |
Figure 13 |
Figure 14 |
The data set is:
Figure 15
Select the chart and then select
the menu item Chart | Source Data... In the dialog box, in the
Series tab, click the Add button and select the appropriate cell
ranges for the X Values and the Y Values (see Figure 16).
Figure 16
Format the new series without any
markers but with a black line (Figure 17). Also, add data
labels but this time select the 'Show values' option as in Figure
18. Format the data labels so that they are to the left of the
data points, as for the previous series. The result is shown in
Figure 19.
|
Figure 17 |
Figure 18 |
Figure 19 |
To do this use the data set shown
in Figure 20:
Figure 20
Add this data set as in the
previous section and format it to have a black line and no marker.
Do not add any data labels. The result should be:
Figure 21
