A common application for WinWedge is to input data from an instrument to an Excel spreadsheet. This article discusses how to visualize the data on an automatically updating chart.
Step 1
Enter a number into cell A1 and press the Enter key. (Any number will do.)
Step 2
In Excel's main menu, select INSERT, NAME and DEFINE and then enter the name “ChartData” in the textbox labeled “Names in workbook” and then enter the following formula in the textbox labeled “Refers to:”
=OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1,0,0,COUNTA(Sheet1!$A:$A))
Note: the above formula contains references to “Sheet1” – if your chart data is in a different sheet, change this to the desired sheet name
When you are finished entering the above formula, click the button labeled “Add” and then click the button labeled “Close”. The above formula returns a range consisting of all data in column A starting in cell A1.
Step 3
Insert a chart in your spreadsheet using the Excel Chart Wizard. Select INSERT and CHART… from the Excel main menu and then walk through the chart wizard options. In step 2 of the Chart Wizard, make sure that you leave the default settings for the “Data Range” value.
Step 4
Select your chart in the worksheet by clicking on it and and then select CHART and SOURCE DATA… from the Excel main menu. Click on the “Series” tab in the window that appears and then enter the following formula in the “Values” textbox for the series named “Series1”.
=Sheet1!ChartData
Finally, click the OK button to return to the spreadsheet and enter data into column A. The chart will automatically update as you enter new data into the worksheet in column A.