Remove one segment of line connecting points in a trendline chart?

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Level 1

35 points

Remove one segment of line connecting points in a trendline chart?

I have a linear trendline plotted where the data points for the first 19 values lie on either side of the trendline. These are joined by a dashed line. I want to keep that line intact.

The last 9 points lie along the trendline and are indistinguishable from it. That's fine, too.

I want to remove just the segment of the dashed line running from the last distinguishable point to the first indistinguishable one. Breaking the 28 point dataset into two sets isn't an option since I need all 28 to produce the trendline. The trendline is the reason for the chart.

Anything I can do to remove that segment of dashed line? Wite Out isn't an option.

Thanks for any ideas.

iMac 20" Core Duo; 2GB RAM; MacBook 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo 2 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), iWork 09

Posted on Oct 20, 2010 4:01 PM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

30,648 points

Oct 22, 2010 7:05 PM in response to Tunesmith

There is no way to remove a single segment from a series. The only workaround I can think of is to plot three series (or some variant on this theme in case I misunderstood what your chart looks like):

1) Your original series. No connecting lines for this series.
2) A set of data points up to where you want the line to stop
3) The remaining data points

There will be a missing line segment between (2) and (3).

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Answer 2

Tunesmith Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 23, 2010 7:50 AM in response to Badunit

Badunit--

That is really clever, and it should work. I really appreciate your response.

You've understood the problem. I have a trendline derived from the cluster of data points with one point for each of 20 years (1991-2010). My requirement is a chart showing both those 1991-2010 points and the trendline (with precision) from 1991 extended to 2020. Since the known values stop at 2010, and since Numbers can't extend the trendline without a workaround, I received help (from you, as a matter of fact) last year on this Forum finding a way to plot the line (essentially by trial and error for the future points). To check my values from last year, I tried out Excel for Mac 2004 and found Excel provided the numerical values through 2020. I plugged them into my Numbers table and life is good.

The objective in this post was to remove the connector joining the 2010 point to the trend line value point for 2011. The 2011-2020 points don't need to be visible--only the trendline they generate.

Your solution should result in my generating the trendline using my full set of 1991-2020 points. I suppose the points along it from 2011-2020 could be made invisible while the trendline stroke and color could be "robust."

A second series, the set of points for 1991-2010, will be visible and connected. If the first series of points is made invisible, there won't be any double vision problems for 1991-2010.

Much appreciated. I'll give it a try. [ I went into the detail above since someone else may encounter similar problems. FYI, your previous help was on 22 July 09].

Terry

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