On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Andy Pope said:

Assuming I have understood your description of the chart I think using
xy-scatter and error bars may make for a more controllable chart.

Andy, thanks for your offer, but I've done it that way before, and it is
indeed more controllable... by me. Used by other people, it breaks as
they carelessly import new values in or change the formatting. For
example, consider the lengths you have to go to to get a category axis
with a scatter chart, with dummy axes and the use of the chart labelling
add-ins and all. I was searching for a solution less, shall we say,
"hotrodded", that other people who are not Excel graph veterans could
use and maintain. I think I've found it.

I thought of another twist: with *two* clustered columns on the
secondary axis, I can choose to mask just the left or right borders on
the data columns, giving the appearance of a comb with a "handle" that
goes to the base. By carefully making the height of the "non-masking"
masking column equal a little less than the minimum of the data values,
I get a handle that joins all the data strokes, but floats above the
base, just joining the minimum and maximum values.

http://www.branta.demon.co.uk/excel/comb071204c.xls

Something I would now like is a macro that will take the dreariness out
of the stage where I have to go "cursor, F4" a hundred times to copy the
identical column format through all those series.

--
Del Cotter
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