bj is describing a floating column chart. This web page has illustrated
examples:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/...ngColumns.html

- Jon
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Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______


bj wrote:

the stacked column will work.
set up one series with thr birth date and a second with the age at death

"Tom Gettys" wrote:


My high-level goal is to compare visually the life-times of many famous
composers.

I have a sheet with a column containing the year of birth and the next
column has the year the person died. Each row is a different person.

I think what I want is a "column" chart in which the start and end of a
column coresponds to the year of birth and death of a person; each column
would corespond to a different person.

Can this be done with the chart wizard?