How to Find a Value on a Graph in Excel
Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Reading Values from Graphs.
Reading Values from Graphs
When creating charts from Excel data, you can smooth out the lines between data points by using any number of methods. At some point, you may want to actually figure out how Excel does its calculations to determine where to actually plot points along the line. Rather than visually trying to figure out where a point falls, you can follow these steps:
- Right-click on the data series in question. Excel displays a Context menu.
- Choose the Add Trendline option from the Context menu. Excel displays the Add Trendline dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
- Make sure the regression type you want to use is selected.
- Display the Options tab.
- Make sure the Display Equation on Chart check box is selected.
- Click on OK.
Figure 1. The Add Trendline dialog box.
The result is that Excel shows a formula, on the chart, that represents how it calculated each point along the line. You can then use this formula to determine points, as well. No more guessing! Once you know the formula, you can turn off the formula display if you want it off.
If you would like to know the different formulas that Excel uses for different types of trend lines, you can use the online Help system to search for "equations for calculating trendlines."
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3247) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Reading Values from Graphs.
Author Bio
With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...
MORE FROM ALLEN
Protecting Formulas in Control-Linked Cells
Form controls can be a great way to get information into a worksheet. They are designed to be linked to a cell so that ...
Discover More
Hiding Grammar Errors
Are you bothered by the green underlines that Word uses to mark potential grammar errors in your document? You can hide ...
Discover More
Accessing Old Excel Data
If you have some legacy data stored in very old spreadsheet files, you may be wondering how to get that data into an ...
Discover More
More ExcelTips (menu)
Getting Rid of Fixed Objects
Some dialog boxes in Excel refer to "fixed objects" in worksheets. What are they and how do you get rid of them?
Discover More
Resizing a Picture
Place a graphic into a worksheet, and it is inevitable that you'll need to change the size of that graphic. Here's the ...
Discover More
Two-Level Axis Labels
Need a chart that uses two lines for axis labels? It's easy to do if you know how to set up your data in the worksheet, ...
Discover More
How to Find a Value on a Graph in Excel
Source: https://excel.tips.net/T003247_Reading_Values_from_Graphs.html
0 Response to "How to Find a Value on a Graph in Excel"
Post a Comment