[gordonlh]

I want to plot times during a 24-hour day during which some activity occurs. I want "Day" (of month) on the y-axis and "Period of Time [of activity]" on the x-axis. I want x-axis bars extending from the time each activity period begins until the time it ends; there would be several such periods each day. There would be 30 days along the y axis

Would Excel plot such a graph and, if so, what function(s) would I use? How would I get the multiple horizontal bars across the screen for each day?

[XL Guru]

Caveat ; I never work with charts.

There's a "Floating Bars" custom type, I thought it might have some scope but couldn't get anywhere with it. Here's what I did.

Time intervals in A1, A2 ... of 00:00, 00:10, etc.

In B1 etc, blanks or 1s, eg: blank, blank, 1, 1, 1, blank. In C1 etc, blanks or 2s, in D1 etc, blanks or 3s. Etc, etc.

Plotted the whole thing as an xy scatter, attached ; just change the ext to xls.

As far as the y-axis values go, pass. Here are some chart wiz links:

http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/index.html

http://www.tushar-mehta.com/

Rgds,
Andy

[gordonlh]

Ingenuity: there's also no substitute for it, apparently. Thanks Andy, XL Guru. (Does this have anything to do with your Pacman expertise)?

[XL Guru]

gr8 ; while reading your reply, I lost another life. ( )

Welcome to the board, enjoy.