"How do I get the label A and the values 23 and 87 on the x axis, and label B
and values 200 and 500 on the y axis please?"

You can't do that.

As far as I can see the behaviour that EXCEL is performing is correct.

You cannot have the label A and the values 23 and 87 on the x axis because
the x axis is a category axis (which expects labels, like A, not values, like
23 and 87).

You cannot mix labels and values on the same axis.

Similary you ask for, "label B and values 200 and 500 on the y axis". You
can't do that because, once again, you are mixing labels and values on the
same axis.

The Y axis is a value axis and expects values (like 200 and 500) but not
labels (like B).

To assist you further hit the F 1 key to display the Help Facility.

In the Search box type:-

line chart

A topic (near the top) called:-

Present your data in a scatter or line chart

- is shown.

Display this and pay particular attention to the Line Chart parts.

It explains how the axes are used and what data they are expecting.

Please hit Yes if my comments have helped.

Thanks.










"gvm" wrote:

I have data that I want to put in a simple line graph: The data is
A B
23 200
87 500

I mark the 6 cells, select insert chart / line and get a chart with both A
and B labels on the x axis. I go to "select data source" and try "switch
row/column" and get A and B as series names in the legend. How do I get the
label A and the values 23 and 87 on the x axis, and label B and values 200
and 500 on the y axis please?
(Congratulations Microsoft for making something that was so easy and
powerful in Excel 2003 an absolutely primitive disgrace in Excel 2007!) TIA
... Greg