Oh, yeah, sorry. For some reason I have always thought about that the
approach for that particular issue being one in which you calculate the mean
for the population and then break the population down into groups of +/- 1
standard deviation, +/- 2 standard deviations, etc. So I've just always
thought of it as a "standard deviation" chart. But you're right, the term
"bell curve" is probably a more readily understandable description.

I just noticed your latest reply, so I haven't yet had a chance to review in
detail the article that you linked to in the reply. However, just glancing
at the article it looks like it's what I need. I'll try to take a look at
it this weekend.

Thanks for the help.

--Tom

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
Ah, if you had said bell curve, I would have instantly known. My colleague
Tushar Mehta has a tutorial on the topic he

http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/ch..._distribution/

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/
Advanced Excel Conference - Training in Charting and Programming
http://peltiertech.com/Training/2009...00906ACNJ.html
_______


"Thomas M." wrote in message
...
It's been years since I came across a situation where I thought doing a
standard deviation calculation and charting the results would be the way
to go. However, I do remember one request from years back where my boss
wanted two bell-shaped curves on the same report. I was working for a
medical case management company at the time, and the x-axis was to show
numerical values for diabetes patients where the higher the number the
healthier the person (in over simplified terms). The first bell-shaped
curve was to show the range that people fell into when they first entered
the diabetes management program, and the second curve was to show the
range that those same patients fell into after being in the program for a
given period of time. He wanted the area under each curve to be entirely
colored in. I was working with Excel 97 at the time, and I just seem to
remember that I could not find an easy way to produce such a chart.

--Tom

"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
You can calculate standard deviations, and you can chart numbers. What
precisely is a "standard deviation chart"?

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://PeltierTech.com/WordPress/
_______


"Thomas M." wrote in message
...
Excel 2007

Just out of curiosity, is there a way to generate a standard deviation
chart in Excel?

--Tom