Preparing the Data for Plotting (Mac)

Note: The following instructions are for Mac users. If you are using a PC, go back to the previous page for PC-specific instructions

1. Click on the tab PROFILE PLOT SHEET.
2. At the top of the page, click on the tab "Charts" and from the "Scatter" dropdown list select the "Straight Lined Scatter" option.
3. A blank plot should appear on your worksheet.
4. Now, click on the chart and then right click your mouse (or control + click if your mouse doesn't have a right click button). A window will pop up that has a line "Select Data." Click this, and a new box will appear that allows you to specify which data you want to plot.
5. On the left hand side of the "Select Data Source" box, click on the "add" button and a new series entitled "Series 1" will appear. Click the icon to the right of the field that says "Name." Now, click on the PROFILE DATA Tab and find the cell with the first survey date (cell A4). Click on this cell, and its contents will be imported into the data entry field. Click the icon to the right of the data entry field to return to the "Select Data Source" box. The "Name" line should now be populated.
6. Next, click the icon to the right of the field that says "X values." Then, click on the PROFILE DATA tab and move your cursor to cell D4, which is the first value of the cumulative horizontal distances. Hold your mouse button down and drag all the way to the end of the cumulative horizontal distance column for that survey date. Click the icon to the right of the data entry field to return to the "Select Data Source" box. The "X values" line should now be populated.
7. Now, click the icon to the right of the field that says "Y values". Now, click on the PROFILE DATA tab, click in cell E4 of the cumulative change in elevation column and, again, while holding your mouse button down, drag to the end of the column for that survey date. Click the icon to the right of the data entry field to return to the "Select Data Source" box. The "Y values" line should now be populated.
8. Now, click "Add" to add the next survey date, and repeat the above process for the September 09, 2008 dataset. Repeat this procedure to include the third survey data. The final plot should look similar to the one shown in Figure 3.50.
9. You will have to add axis titles, as well as a title at the top of the chart. This can be achieved by clicking on the "Chart Layout" tab where additional dropdown menus will appear for "Chart Title" and "Axis Titles".
10. Now select the "Format" tab to the right of the "Chart Layout" tab to set the size of the chart to be 5" height and 9" width. All of your charts should be the same size, and the axis range should all be the same as well. Axis range can be adjusted by right clicking on each individual axis to highlight it, and then choosing "format axis" option where you can set the scale for that axis. The horizontal axis should span 0 to 100 and the vertical axis should range from 180 to -200. You also need to make sure that the X axis of the plot (horizontal distance) crosses the Y axis (relative elevation) at the -200 value of the Y axis. To do this, go to format the Y axis and you will see an axis value setting where you can enter a value of -200 into the box that says "horizontal axis crosses at:".
11. Follow these steps for all three transects, and then answer the questions at the end of this assignment.
    
    

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Figure 3.50: Plot of the first transect for three different survey dates, properly adjusted for colors, labels, main and axes titles, as well as horizontal and vertical scales.