Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi intelligent folks.

I wonder if any of you happen to be any good with Excel charts?

What I want to be able to do is to use to seperate types of data on one axis for comparison, where the figures are quite wildly different.

So, lets imagine that on the horizontal axis I want the dates. On the vertical axis I want the sales units (and let's imagine that they are generally in a range 80,000 to 120,000) and then waste units, which (for this example) might be generally in a range from 0-20.

I want a graph that will overlay the two lines so that the rate of sale can be compared witht the rate of wastage, without one set of data (wastage) being in tiny figures along the bottom in comparison to the figures in thousands (sales) so that the smaller numbers flatten out.

Is there any way of achieving this by listing two sets of data ranges on the vertical axis other than listing sales and then noting that they are in thousands, as in cases where the waste is 0-20 units but the sales are, for example, £500,000-800,000 the waste figures would still be difficult to read.

I have attached a stupid hand-drawn graph:



I know - NOW you all know what I'm talking about.

Ta muchly for help.

I think it may be possible to put stuff on a separate right y axis.

something like this: http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/charts/2_y_axes.php

Plot your two lines on the same graph with one Y axis.
Select one of the lines, right click and select "format data series" or something like that.
Select axis
click secondary axis

tada!

I'm disappointed that you didn't knit us a chart by way of example, Mimi. Your standards must be slipping

I don't think she knows Perl.

knit one perl one

Brilliant.

Thanks guys. You are all aces xx

Sorry Gazchap. Simply a time restraint, I assure you! MaliA, very good!