hanks Tushar, I will give that a go!

"Tushar Mehta" wrote:

That's a very unusual layout. It will also make updating for a new year
somewhat difficult since one has to insert 12 columns in the correct
locations.

But, it means you can create one style of charts very easily. Make sure the
top row (months) are real dates. I would use 1/1/2004, 1/1/2005, etc.,
(formatted as desired, say mmm-yy).

Now, select any cell in this range, and click the chart wizard. Select a
chart type that understands dates (say a Line chart) and in step 2 of the
wizard make sure Data in Rows is selected. You will get one line per
department. Of course, if you prefer one line per month then in step 2 of
the wizard select Data in Columns.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

In article ,
says...
Thanks Tushar, the data is 1st column dept, then columns Jan 04, Jan 05, Jan
06, Feb 04 and so on to Dec. The figures are then in the corresponding row to
column.

appreciate the help!

"Tushar Mehta" wrote:

If your data are laid out in 3 columns as:
Dept. Month Wages
(or four columns as
Dept Yr Mth Wages)
you can then create a PivotTable and Chart with the dept and month (or dept
and year and month) as the row fields and the Wages as the data field.

Or you can move one of the row fields (either dept. or month) to become a
column field while leaving the other as a row field.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

In article ,
says...
I have a list of data that is basically the wages cost per department per
month for 2004 and 2005 and I want to add 2006 to it. I have tried everywhich
way of using the chart wizard in excel with no success and have tried a
pivotchart/table using the wizard with no success. The regular chart will
only display the value on the Y axis and either the department or the month
on the X axis, I cannot get it to do for example Sales and show Jan 04, 05
and 06 next to it (the data is laid out this way). Using the Pivot table all
I get is a total eg 21 departments..............not even a chart just another
sheet with only that info on it! Help please I have spent the past 2 hours
trying to do this one simple thing! should I go back to pen and paper?