Water Mass Identification

Software

Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft. It can read and write .xls files , and create charts and graphs. It can also read and write Word and Powerpoint documents. Versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux available at http://www.openoffice.org.

For image editing, try GIMP (www.gimp.org) which is similar to Photoshop, and Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) which is similar to Freehand/Illustrator.

Excel Help

Creating Charts and Graphs in Excel

How to Plot Data Using Microsoft Excel

Charting the Phosphate and Oxygen columns

If you make sure the depth column is on the Y axis, you don't need to worry about the blank cells, the data will chart with no problems. The easiest way to get the Depth data on the Y axis and the other value on the X axis is to rearrange the columns so that the depth column is last, after the others.

Otherwise, if you set the depth column as the X axis, the blank cells in the O2 and PO4 columns will cause problems. To chart empty cells without leaving gaps, you need to ask Excel to plot the cells as interpolated. To do this:
1. Select your Chart
2. From the Tools menu select Options > Chart > Empty Cells Plotted as Interpolated.

Alternatively you could replace the empty or zero value cells with =NA(). This produces #N/A - an error value that means "no value is available." Either way, the zeros will not now be plotted.