Problem in Charting multiple values in Excel

[Memnon]

Hi,
It's a very simple problem which i am not getting through, can anyone please solve it for me. The problem is that I have a small data set of tree ages across a handful of field sites, with multiple trees aged per site. The site ID is text, e.g. ABC. What I want to do is make a chart with the site ID on the x axis and the tree ages associated with that site stacked above it.
This has so far proven impossible. I've been trying to make a line chart (excel 2003), but what I get is the set spread out, with each data point seemingly assigned it's own unique x value and then labeled with the text. So instead of having three data points above ABC, there
are three ABCs on the x-axis each with one point above it.

[Katty]

What you can do here is associate numerical values for each category (site ID): 1 for the first, 2 for the second, and so on.

Plot a line chart with each category appearing once and an associated value of zero. Format the line to be invisible (no line, no marker).

Set up the rest of your data with X values corresponding to the category numbers (site ID numbers) above and Y values corresponding to tree ages. Copy this data, select the chart, use Paste Special to add this data as a new series with the appropriate settings (especially categories in first column, or row if you are so oriented). Right click on this new series, choose Chart Type, and select an XY type with markers and no lines. The XY chart will automatically plot X=1 above the first category on the line chart axis, X=2 above the second, etc.

May solve your query ....

[Memnon]

Thanks a lot it did the trick for me, its really interesting the way you told me i think i should learn more about it.