I'm trying to plot a change in a sensor input over time, so I used an XY
Scatter chart. I would like to plot the X-Axis as the number of hours
elapsed, since I care more about the rate of change than the actual time of
any input. However, when I try to create an XY Scatter chart with the "Hours
Elapsed" column in the data below as the X-axis, and the "Reading" value as
the Y-axis, the chart that is created just plots each Reading at X Value
1,2,3,4,5,...., i.e. it's position in the list, NOT correlated at all with
the "Hours Elapsed" value. If I use the "Time" column, the chart is correct,
it's just harder to figure out the elapsed time for each point, which is what
I really care about. The X-axis is labeled as a "Value" axis, not a
"Category" axis in the chart options dialog, so I'm definitely not mistakenly
putting in a line graph instead of an XY Scatter. If you can take this data
and make it display correctly, please let me know the exact sequence of steps
(i.e. the specific menu items and buttons you click) you followed so I can
see if it's something I'm doing wrong. For reference, I've done it the
"automatic" and "manual" ways, i.e. I selected the Columns to chart, hit
"Insert"-"Chart", selected XY Scatter, and hit finish, and the incorrect
thing popped up, and I also tried manually selecting the series' x and y
columns, with the same result.

"Time" "Hours Elapsed" "Reading"
6/14/06 20:56:30 0.00000 -7.30E-03
6/14/06 20:56:30 0.00000 3.45E-03
6/14/06 20:56:31 0.00028 -1.93E-02
6/14/06 20:56:31 0.00028 -3.77E-03
6/14/06 20:56:32 0.00056 -1.58E-02
6/14/06 20:56:32 0.00056 -1.95E-02
6/14/06 20:56:33 0.00083 -3.34E-04
6/14/06 20:56:34 0.00111 1.53E-02
6/14/06 20:56:34 0.00111 2.71E-02
6/14/06 20:56:35 0.00139 0.035273452
6/14/06 21:18:20 0.36389 0.685835596
6/14/06 21:18:21 0.36417 0.720416515
6/14/06 21:18:21 0.36417 0.681687932
6/14/06 21:18:21 0.36417 0.716684964
6/14/06 21:18:22 0.36444 0.713013579
6/14/06 21:18:22 0.36444 0.705221815
6/14/06 21:18:22 0.36444 0.693284429
6/14/06 21:18:23 0.36472 0.696820773
6/14/06 21:18:23 0.36472 0.709128023
6/14/06 21:18:23 0.36472 0.697221725
6/15/06 12:12:34 15.26778 1.929315639
6/15/06 12:12:34 15.26778 1.922207262
6/15/06 12:15:27 15.31583 1.915108907
6/15/06 18:09:59 21.22472 1.793881129
6/15/06 18:09:59 21.22472 1.718916151
6/15/06 18:09:59 21.22472 1.778736308
6/15/06 18:09:59 21.22472 1.7585874
6/15/06 18:10:00 21.22500 1.74581924
6/15/06 18:10:00 21.22500 1.773878608
6/15/06 18:10:01 21.22528 1.778039018
6/15/06 18:10:01 21.22528 1.739190766
6/15/06 18:10:01 21.22528 1.778288816
6/15/06 18:10:02 21.22556 1.739653299
6/15/06 18:52:10 21.92778 1.771451047
6/15/06 18:52:10 21.92778 1.795111986
6/15/06 18:52:10 21.92778 1.755809638
6/15/06 18:52:11 21.92806 1.795363444
6/15/06 18:52:11 21.92806 1.771807122
6/15/06 18:52:11 21.92806 1.764163674
6/15/06 18:52:12 21.92833 1.76401726
6/15/06 18:52:12 21.92833 1.760107291
6/15/06 18:52:12 21.92833 1.799763894
6/15/06 18:52:13 21.92861 1.772095349
6/15/06 19:40:52 22.73944 1.800174568
6/15/06 19:40:53 22.73972 1.776499596
6/15/06 19:40:53 22.73972 1.796176729
6/15/06 19:40:53 22.73972 1.772950386
6/15/06 19:40:54 22.74000 1.804248772
6/15/06 19:40:54 22.74000 1.784261625
6/15/06 19:40:54 22.74000 1.80028425
6/15/06 19:40:55 22.74028 1.792036898

I've figured it out: In my column which calculates the elapsed hours, I'm
using the "FIXED" function, which makes a text field, not a numeric field.
It would be nice to have a warning or something when I tell Excel to use a
text field for a value X-axis, or at least Excel could try to convert to
numbers, but anyway. Thanks!