Complicated excell question, & I'm not going to tell you how I am trying to do it, so you can tell me I am doing it wrong

[KatyMac]

I'd rather explain what I am doing and see if anyone can come up with a solution

If that makes sense

I want a table with children's start & finish times in it

I want to creat a coloured barchart (I think that's what it's called) showing the hours of attendance

I don't think that makes any sense at all - but then it has been a bit of a complicated day

This is hard to explain in words but actually quite easy to do:

Column A: Names of children
Column B: Start times
Column C: Finish times
Column D: hours of attendance (=finish time - start time)

Now select only column A and column D and click Graph icon. Choose the type of graph you want, and voila!

But as they all start and finish at separate times that wouldn't work would it?

They would all start at the bottom of the bar chart and end whenever

Is it a Gannt/gantt chart I want where the starts & finishes can be different?

Anyone else got any ideas?

i need it to show the start & finish times for each child if that makes sense?

pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=343

Try this. Techtrax tend to be quite good.

Ok, you can do this in Excel.

You create the data, then use Insert->Chart. Then select the Custom Types tab. Then select the Floating Bars type. This does the job.

Ah, yes, kevlarhead's (I've got to look puzzled at that name) method would work too. But mine is simpler, I think.

Aah, sorry, I thought you just meant to chart the number of hours each had attended.

I'm not sure if there is an easy way to do what you want. There is a hard way but let's see if anyone else has an answer first.

Column A: Child name
Column B: Earliest possible start time
Column C: Start time
Column D: Finish time
Column E: hours of attendance (=finis...

Send me your data and I can have a go if you like. It's late, I'm bored and I need some procrastination material.

NotQuiteCockney - My Excel doesn't have a Custom Types tab and it definitely does not have a Floaing Bars option. Where do you see these?

I was going to try to explain something like Kevlarhead's link. Now you know why I was reluctant to go into it, Katy

Are you sure Kelvarhead?

It's quite complicated, even if you could start me off I can play about with it

Do you want my email?

I get the Custom Types tab when I select 'Insert->Chart'. The normal chart types are there, in the Standard Types tab, and next to it is a Custom Types tab.

I am running Excel 2000.

Ah, apparently Kevlarhead's site is quite standard as it's what came up when I googled for custom chart types - look, here's what these tabs look like.

Go for it

I posted it within 2 minutes of your first post, so you can't blame your DH's chatty nature, jura.

katymacb - I tend not to write it out in full

Hotmail.co.uk

NotQuiteCockney - I have Excel 2007. That would probably explain the difference.

My hotmail account says I have mail - but won't show it to me (I feel really daft)

I only just sent, so I don't think it was me...

Gotcha

Off to bed - as you can see I have a 7:30 start in the morning

It is quite complicated - sorry if it's too much

Oh Wow - that is amazing (not sure I can understand it all - but it is amazing)

Kevlarhead - thank you very much for what you did for me last night - however I can't make head nor tail of it - I feel very embarrassed to admit that but it's true

So I thought I'd look for a downloadable programme that does gannt charts rather than trying to tweak something which isn't designed to do it

Sorry to have messed you around & I really appreciate your help