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Graphing in Excel 2007
I will assume that you have a table of values that you wish to plot, with independent variable in the left column, and dependent variable in the right column. Details of that part are in my Excel 2003 instructions, and there is no difference in Excel 2007.
The easiest way is to start by highlighting the two columns in question.
While the data is highlighted, click on the Insert tab to activate the Insert Ribbon.
Here is where it differs from Excel 2003. In Excel 2003, you would have had to click on Chart, and THEN on the type of chart. We no longer have to do that. In Excel 2007, the Scatter plot button is visible directly in the Insert Ribbon. Click on the Scatter button.
For math plots, we want either the smooth curve showing the dots connected, or we want the curve without the dots. Here, I selected Dots connected with smooth curve.
Notes:
· If your column header for the dependent variable contains the plotted formula, it will show up as the title of the graph.
· The formula to the right is in the legend. You can optionally delete the legend by clicking on it and pressing the Delete button.
· You can change the appearance of the chart area by right-clicking on the chart and selecting Format Chart Area.
·
You can also click on the chart and notice that the Ribbon
changes to the Design tab.
This gives you a one-button method for selecting how the chart should appear.
Click on the down arrow to the right
and the options will expand to view them all at the same time.
With the Chart selected, you also have a
Layout Ribbon that allows you to control Axes, labels and the like.
Copying your work into a Word document (works with either Word 2003 or Word 2007)
In order to copy anything from an Excel spreadsheet into a Word documents, the original spreadsheet needs to be unprotected, allowing you to highlight the objects you want to copy. Here, I will assume that the sheet in unprotected.
To copy, you must select a Range of cells or a Chart (or both).
For example, below, I have highlighted the Range from A5 to B22. With that range highlighted, you can use Ctrl-C, or you can click on Copy, just under the Home tab.
This copies the table to the clipboard. To paste it in,
Use Ctrl-V
Or click the Paste option that will show up on the Home tab Ribbon
The table will look like this when pasted in:
|
x |
x^2+1 |
|
-2 |
5 |
|
-1.75 |
4.0625 |
|
-1.5 |
3.25 |
|
-1.25 |
2.5625 |
|
-1 |
2 |
|
-0.75 |
1.5625 |
|
-0.5 |
1.25 |
|
-0.25 |
1.0625 |
|
0 |
1 |
|
0.25 |
1.0625 |
|
0.5 |
1.25 |
|
0.75 |
1.5625 |
|
1 |
2 |
|
1.25 |
2.5625 |
|
1.5 |
3.25 |
|
1.75 |
4.0625 |
|
2 |
5 |
To select the graph, left-click just inside the Chart area. You will see eight “handles” around the border of the chart.
These handles can be used to resize the chart, but they indicate also that the chart is selected. In the same way as with the Range tablel, you can copy this to the clipboard and paste it into the Word document. It will look like this:
Note the disappearance of the handles.
You can also click and drag inside of the spreadsheet to cover an area that encompasses both the table AND the chart. When you copy/paste that into the Word document, it will be side-by-side Table/Chart as follows.
|
x |
x^2+1 |
|
||||||||
|
-2 |
5 |
|||||||||
|
-1.75 |
4.0625 |
|||||||||
|
-1.5 |
3.25 |
|||||||||
|
-1.25 |
2.5625 |
|||||||||
|
-1 |
2 |
|||||||||
|
-0.75 |
1.5625 |
|||||||||
|
-0.5 |
1.25 |
|||||||||
|
-0.25 |
1.0625 |
|||||||||
|
0 |
1 |
|||||||||
|
0.25 |
1.0625 |
|||||||||
|
0.5 |
1.25 |
|||||||||
|
0.75 |
1.5625 |
|||||||||
|
1 |
2 |
|||||||||
|
1.25 |
2.5625 |
|||||||||
|
1.5 |
3.25 |
|||||||||
|
1.75 |
4.0625 |
|||||||||
|
2 |
5 |
|||||||||
