Here is an example of an attempt to plot parametric data in a scientifically meaningful way, using Microsoft Excel. This example describes an experience using the Office X version for Macintosh. The details may change with different versions, but the principle stays the same – the author must control the appearance of all aspects of the figure. We cannot count on programmers to have correctly guessed our intended use of the application.

If you find that it is just too awkward to prepare a proper figure using a computer program, then do it by hand. If you use a hand drawn graph do keep in mind its purpose. If it is to be a working document, not to be presented or published, then you may want to make it as large as you can, ignoring margins, for maximum accuracy. For a paper or presentation, just keep the figure well within the margins of your sheet of graph paper, since the purpose is to illustrate the result, not to use the graph as a working document. You don’t need to fill up all available space. If you submit a manuscript for publication or conduct a formal presentation, then you will probably have to prepare a computer generated figure.

PROGRAM DEFAULT Table 1 represents measurements of heights of tree seedlings as they were allowed to grow. If you haven’t much experience plotting with Excel you might want to open a new spreadsheet, enter the data, and follow along with the example. The data were entered into an Excel spreadsheet in columns in the same order as they appear in the table, with time (the independent variable) listed in the first column.

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