You have any number of choices.
Create a 3D surface chart with months and building on the x and y axis
and the #departments as the value (z) axis.
Organize your data as
M1 B1 #dept
B2 #dept
B3 #dept
M2 B1 #dept
....
and create a column/line chart with the first 2 columns as the x-values.
Exchange the first two columns to get a somewhat different layout.
If your data are in tabular format, create a PivotTable (and chart).
You will automatically get the above chart.
For something different, put the building ID on the x-axis and the
months on the y axis in a line or XY scatter plot (actually just a
number representing the month will do). So, if you have data for 3
buildings and 5 months you would plot
B1 1 2 3 4 5
B2 1 2 3 4 5
B3 1 2 3 4 5
Remember you actually have 15 data points for #depts in compliance.
Plot those as data labels using XY Chartlabeler (
www.appspro.com) or
ChartTools (
www.j-walk.com).
You could even create little bars indicating #depts in compliance. Use
custom error bars, use both + and - y bars and set the values to 1/2 a
scaled value of #depts. How do you calculate the scaled value? Use
something that is aesthetically appealing. Start with #depts/maximum
#depts * 0.5
You can color code these error bars to show relative ranges. If the
#depts < some threshold, make the bars red. If between 2 threshold
values, yellow. Above a certain value, green.
Finally, you could use either horizontal or vertical floating bars a la
Floating bars in charts (
http://www.tushar-
mehta.com/excel/newsgroups/floating_bars/index.html) or Waterfall chart
(
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/ch...fall/index.htm) These
would be more difficult to set up than using error bars but will give
you better format control.
--
Regards,
Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Multi-disciplinary business expertise
+ Technology skills
= Optimal solution to your business problem
Recipient Microsoft MVP award 2000-2005
In article ,
says...
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I have information that
needs to go into some form of a chart--any chart. I need to show the number
of departments in several buildings that are compliant with rules from Jan
thru April. Basically, from what I can see, I need to have three axis:
month, building, and number. What graph should I use and how should I go
about doing this?