How To Make A Coordinate Plane In MS Excel

A coordinate plane is formed by two lines that intersect at right angles, creating four sections called quadrants. Coordinate planes are used to graph ordered pairs and equations or to construct scatter plots. You can make a coordinate plane in Microsoft Excel, using cell formatting and drawing tools.

Step 1

Open a new, blank Excel document. Click the "Rectangle" in the upper-left corner of the spreadsheet located at the intersection of column A and row 1. This will select the entire spreadsheet. Click the "View" tab. In the Show/Hide group, deselect "Gridlines."

Step 2

Place your cursor on a line between any two column headers. Your cursor will change to a vertical line crossed by a horizontal arrow. Drag the line left until the column width is exactly 20 pixels. When you release the mouse, all cells will be square. Click in cell "A1" to remove the highlighting.

Step 3

Click cell "C3" and drag and highlight the 400-cell area to cell V22. In the Font group on the Home tab, click the "Arrow" on the border tool. Select the "Border" that resembles a window with four panes.

Step 4

Click the "Insert" tab. In the Illustrations group, click the arrow on "Shapes." Select the line with two arrow heads.

Step 5

Draw the x-axis between row 12 and row 13. To make a straight line, hold the "Shift" key while you click and drag. Draw the y-axis between columns L and M.