A time axis cannot have non-time values in the X value range. You’ve defined your X and Y value ranges to include row 1, which contains labels. Redefine these ranges to start at row 2 (select the chart, and resize the highlight rectangles), and the chart will correct itself. (It’s still pretty cluttered.)

What a wonderful explanation, after 10 minutes on google i found your page and thought that i found the answer of for my problem: to get results of different fieldwork measurements overtime in one graph.

I tried to do the trick you used to get data with different monthly values in 1 chart. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as expected(the data is put behind one another in the chart). I think that the problem is that I have to many series but i am not totally sure! Could you please look at my spreadsheet in the link attached? In the first one is the raw data, in the second I tried your trick! If you could please see in a second what I did wrong I would be very grateful.

The first link is a screenshot of what i did, since i got more than 800 cases i also added the xls file because the screenshot does not give enough insight i think. In the last link i added a graph of what i want but than for the whole time series instead of only 2007.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13064229/excel%20screenshot.tiff
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13064229/measurements%20Zegveld.xls
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13064229/notwhole%20timeserie.tiff

Yours sincerely,

Jan-Willem
Msc Student Sustainable Development in the Netherlands

Thanks for your guidance above, but alas my problem is somewhat different with the need to show two variables of different metrics (so I use the secondary Y axis) and be able to shift one relative to the other in time.

I appreciate this is confusing, as the date ranges will be the same, but I wish to explore how, when one variable offset relative to the other, they visually relate. Is this possible in Excel 2010? And, if so, how please?

Kind regards, Ian

Your data is not suitable for a line chart. An Excel line chart will see dates and times and assume you need a date-scale X axis. Unfortunately the resolution of this axis is by day, so all your data for the first day is plotted at the same X position centered over the first day, and all the data for the second day is plotted centered over the second day (see chart at top left, below). You can change the axis to a category/text type, which equally spaces all of the data without consideration of the numerical values of the dates and times (top right). If you make a line chart, the data is appropriately spaced according to actual times, some closer than others (bottom left). The markers in the second series are not connected by lines because of the blank cells in the data. Change this by instructing Excel to interpolate across gaps in the data (bottom right).