Changing Time Scale to Seconds on Excel Chart

[Guest]

My students are plotting the temperature of a liquid over time. We can make
a beautiful line graph, but the scale of the X axis is wrong. It should show
tick marks at 30 second intervals, but instead it just shows 1, 2, 3, etc. I
have tried checking off "time scale" when I create the chart, but it uses the
interval of days, months or years. We want intervals of seconds. Can this
be done?


Also, is it possible to add straight lines (i.e., y=30) to the line graph?

 

[Kelly O'Day]

Use an XY (Scatter) plot instead of a Line chart.

To add the constant 30 line, add a new column next to your existing data
with 30 in all cells. Then go to Chart > Source Data and add the series.

 

[Tushar Mehta]

My students are plotting the temperature of a liquid over time. We can make
a beautiful line graph, but the scale of the X axis is wrong. It should show
tick marks at 30 second intervals, but instead it just shows 1, 2, 3, etc. I
have tried checking off "time scale" when I create the chart, but it uses the
interval of days, months or years. We want intervals of seconds. Can this
be done?


Also, is it possible to add straight lines (i.e., y=30) to the line graph?

As has already been suggested, use a XY Scatter chart. The x-axis option of
'time scale' is misleading since it is more like a 'day scale.'

To add a horizontal line see
Adding a horizontal line to a chart
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts/straight_lines/

Also, Jon Peltier has a different approach to the subject. I don't have a
direct page reference but you check his site at www.peltiertech.com.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions