Implementing a timeline graph like a scatter plot

Question

Hi all – not sure where to post this, but I am trying to figure out how to implement this idea. Basically I am implementing a timeline, but it differs slightly from examples I have seen.

I have 3 items - Projects, events, and a timeline. Projects are associated with multiple events, each of which occurs on a date. I want my timeline along x axis, and the projects listed down the y axis.

Each project is a “lane” has the same number of events, but they occur at different times for each project. The intent is to visualize how many of the events have occurred and when, per project.

I imagine the data would look like:

                Event 1     |    Event 2   |    Event 3

Project 1   |  1/1/2015     |  5/1/2015    | 7/1/2015

Project 2   |  4/1/2014     |  9/1/2014    |  --

Project 3   |  3/1/2015     |      --      |  -- 

Where blanks were not reported.

I tried an Excel scatter plot which gets me close , but I can’t figure out how to get the timeline on the x axis, and the “project” axis does not represent the project names, but instead displays numbers.

Any direction appreciated.

Answer 1

I think the basic problem is that there are no y-coordinates as such and it's not obvious what they should be.

Having played around with it a bit I came up with this data layout:-

So basically

Create a scatter with columns A & B
Add columns C & D
Add columns E & F
Add data labels.

You can use the dates for the data labels if you prefer.