Shaded background to chart plots

[razberri]

Hi all,

I'm using Office 2003 and would like to create a hart with 3 elements:

1) Column chart showing number of species plotted on the primary Y axis.

2) Line graph showing water depth plotted on the secondary Y axis

Both are against an x axis with Time.

3) I would like the plot background to consist of 3 shaded horizontal bands which correspond to low, medium and high water depth levels (ie, these would have to be plotted on the secondary Y axis) and these would have to cover the entire plot area.

I have been able to do this by creating a dummy series on the secondary x axis and usng stacked columns, but only without including the water depth line (element 2). Or by using the stacked area chart type but that leaves a blank area at either ends of the plot.

Can anyone help?? Please???

An example of what I have so far is attached. Basically I want the areas in between the red and green dashed lines to be shaded and in the background, so that instead of just good and poor condition lines I have 3 areas: good, medim and poor condition.

[razberri]

Accidental post sorry, can only find how to edit, not delete

[razberri]

Is this even possible in Excel or should I start to think about photoshopping options?

[shg]

1. Create a scatter plot with two series

2. Select one of the series and change it to a column graph

3. Fill the plot area with a picture of your shaded bands created in Visio or other application of your choice.

It would be easier to help if you'd post a workbook with your data.

[razberri]

OK, worksheet attached. I couldn't include the graph (so you could see how it was done) as the file was too big

shg - your solution is similar to what I was thinking of doing. I was going to change the vertical lines (indicating depth class) to thin continuous ones and move them to the background, then edit the jpg in Photoshop by filling colour/patterns in between the lines.

Creating a picture for the background would be fairly difficult as the lines correspond to different values for each of the 25 wetlands I am plotting. Would make for a very lengthy process... That's why I was hoping it could all be done in Excel.

[shg]

Before doing any Photoshop work, you might browse visit Andy Pope's web site -- he is the wizard of graphs.

And Excel 2007 offers many more options for presentation-level graphics (its one redeeming feature).

[shg]

Before doing any Photoshop work, you might browse Andy Pope's web site -- he is the wizard of graphs.

And Excel 2007 offers many more options for presentation-level graphics (its one redeeming feature).

[razberri]

Thanks for the link!

I was hoping excel 2007 would have more features. It seems the current Excel lacks so many functions. I would have thought it simple to have a standard fill bucket tool that allows you to fill backgrounds between series!

Unfortunately Excel 2007 won't be rolling in to my workplace until AFTER my project is due... very handy