Hi Everyone, im new here so lets see whos mind I can pick... And yes, the name is deliberately spelled wrong :P Its a long standing joke .

So long story short, im trying to do something called a Taguchi analysis and I need to plot graphs which are essentially four graphs in one figure. I've seen it done in past year students reports but I cant figure it out.

The attachment has an example of what I want it too look like and is from the software that is giving me the output. Its pretty ugly and thats why I want to make a fresh graph on Excel.

I would prefer to learn how to make this graph myself but would be appreciative if someone makes one for me.



The graph needs to have the following key features:

• Figure title,
• Figure subtitle,
• Individual graph element titles (Water to Cement ratio, Foam, PVA Fibres, Superplasticiser [in that order]),
• X-axis with the values seen in attachment
• Y-axis for all four internal graphs
• Horizontal line which I can set at the appropriate Y-axis value average

Im finding it a bit hard to explain what I need but the main point is it needs to look like the attachment.



Any advice would be most appreciated. Please feel free to ask for clarification where its needs.

Attached Files

Effects Plot.pdf (162.8 KB, 23 views)

That looks like it was done in Minitab actually. You can certainly simulate it in Excel easily with four separate charts.

Hi Gebobs,

You're right. The attachment is from Minitab. That is the plot it gives me. The only issue I have with it is the visual appeal of it and because of that, I would like to create a similar single figure in excel containing the four internal graphs. You're right that I could just make four individual graphs but then my final thesis document will have more figures in it than I would care to think of.

Also, by having all the 'effect plots' in one single graph figure, its easier to talk about similarities ect.

If you have any suggestions, I am all open ears.

The way I see it, you would have the four charts right next to each other just as they are in Minitab. I bet Excel could reproduce them exactly. Then you just select the four charts together and paste them as an image in your thesis. You can group them together to make selecting them easier.

What's the problem with the visual appeal of the Minitab chart? I like it. Very simple, concise. Granted, there's not much one can do to prettify in Minitab though there are some things that can be done using the graphing toolbars.

See attached.

Attached Files

Taguchi.xlsx (41.5 KB, 13 views)

Thanks Gebobs.

I've looked at your attachment and have noticed that your grouped charts have a dashed line around them all. Is there a function whereby you can actually group charts as one figure? I thought you meant place them next to one another, screenshot and paste.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to use graphs from Excel relates to our formatting guide. We're meant to not have chart titles for instance, instead, we're meant to use captions in MS Word. You'll notice in my original post, the attachment has a title for the Minitab outputted graph. It was not easy to remove this on my home computer. There are other formatting aspects that made excel preferable. I think I will play with the ideas you have given me though.

Yes. When you select a chart (or other object), there is a new menu called Drawing Tools:Format under which there is a function called Group along with others such as an Alignment tool.

Some professors can be very particular about formatting conventions. :-)