David -

You can share axes.

Use this data to make a column chart:

Column
-3 4
-2 5
-1 6
0 7
1 8
2 9
3 10

Add this (manufactured) data to the chart as a new series, then select the
new series and change it to an XY type:

XY

-2.93636 4

3.079892 5

-3.25493 6

-1.05927 7

-3.04437 8

2.857509 9

1.644909 10



It uses -4 to +4 as its X axis range. If you go to Chart Options on the
Chart menu, Axes tab, and uncheck the secondary X axis, some of the XY
points still appear, and they appear at continuously varying horizontal
positions, but they are offset from where you want them.


If you use a category axis for an XY series, it assumes the category values
are 1 for the first category, 2 for the second, etc. In the column chart,
the effective X axis values are -3.5 to +3.5, since the Y axis is moved to
the left of the first category ("between categories" in the dialog). This
means your X values will think the axis ranges from 0.5 to 7.5.

Instead of the last set of data, use this set for your XY series, where the
X values are related to those above by adding 4:

XY

1.063642 4

7.079892 5

0.745069 6

2.940726 7

0.955635 8

6.857509 9

5.644909 10



Add the series, convert to XY, then go to Chart Options from the Chart menu,
Axes tab, and uncheck the secondary X and Y axes.


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

"David" wrote in message
...
"Jon Peltier" wrote:

Realize you have to add a series, then change its type. Start by using
the
column data to create a column chart. Then add the X and Y data for the
XY
series, which Excel at first adds as a column chart, and it usually looks
awful. Select the added series, and use Chart Type on the Chart menu to
change it to an XY type.


Hi Jon,

Thanks for your reply.

I ticked yes, this answers my question, but on closer inspection I see
that
it doesn't quite do what I want.

Following your instructions gives me scatter data using a secondary x-axis
(which for some reason I hadn't so far been able to do - and this at least
gives better results).

In the example I gave in my original post, the column data uses a scale
from
-3 to 3 and the scatter data used a scale from -3.5 to 3.5.

With some fiddling, I can add an extra blank category either side of the
column data so it also goes from -3.5 to 3.5 and then format the secondary
x
axis so that -t goes from -3.75 to 3.75, which gives me the same scale on
the
two axes (since the column widths are 0.5). I can jump through more hoops
(turn off tick marks and tick labels) to hide most elements of this
secondary
axis, producing a reasonable graph.

It is not straight forward to get the two scales to line up because one is
categorical and one is continuous. I really want the column data to be on
a
continuous sort of axis at the same scale as the scatter data.

But maybe this is as good as Excel can do.

cheers,

dc