I would like to plot my daughters swimming laptimes in excel so that I can
graph them to show improvements
Any help greatly appreciated

Barry

Hi Barry,
the only help I can offer is....
1) Dates in column A. Heading in A1: Date
2) Lap times in column B.Heading in B1:Laptime (s). I don't know how
many laptimes you have for each date value. Maybe the average laptime
is all you need to plot,or you could have two plots on the one set of
axes, one for average laptime and the other for best laptime (3 data
series, date in Col A, average laptime in Col B and best laptime in Col
C).
3) After setting up your columns of data, select all the cells with
data then click on the Chart wizard icon or go InsertChart
4) On the Step 1 dialog select X-Y scatter from the box headed Chart
type: then select whatever Chart sub-type you prefer. The second one is
my preference. Click Next.
5) On the Step 2 dialog you shouldn't have to change anything. You
should see an image of the graph, the address of the cells you selected
and that the series are in columns. Click Next.
6) On the Step 3 dialog under the Titles tab, whatever you type in the
Chart title: box will appear at the top of the chart eg My Daughter's
Laptimes. Similarly, type appropriate labels for the Value(X) axis (eg
Date) and Value(Y) axis (eg Laptime (s)). There shouldn't be anything
to change under the Axes tab.Under the Gridlines tab you can add
vertical gridlines and minor gridlines if you want. Under the Legend
tab you can control where the legend is positioned. Also, if you are
only plotting two columns of data your graph will only have one curve
and you won't need the legend so you can uncheck the Show Legend
option. Under the Data Labels tab you can have either date or laptime
near each plotted point, default is none, also my preference. Click
Next.
7) On the Step 4 dialog you can choose where the chart appears; as an
embedded chart on the worksheet with the data or as a Chart sheet,
which you can name.

Hope this helps you.

Ken Johnson