So I'm using two series 1 xbee's, the receiver mounted on my Arduino shield, to send data from a 3 axis analog accelerometer to my Arduino. I'm currently reading the values through the serial monitor but could someone please explain how I could plot this data on a graph? I'm completely new to all this stuff!
Probably the simplest would be to use another serial terminal program instead of the IDE. One that allows you to capture the serial data to a file. Have your arduino sketch emit the data in csv format and then load it into a spreadsheet for graphing.
For real time data, take a look at Processing - it's often paired with arduino.
I think the simplest way to do this to use PLX-DAQ, a freebie macro enabling you to feed data directly into Excel. Essentially, it makes Excel into a terminal thereby making all Excel facilities available live, including Excel graphs. The material fed through PLX is a mixture of data and Excel commands.
I think the simplest solution is to read the stream to the serial monitor, read the data to your computer's clipboard by selecting from the serial monitor, paste the data from the clipboard to a text file, and finally read the text file into your spreadsheet or math software to plot it.
I used python for a very similar application. Using the pyserial module you can catch anything that comes from the serial port and then plot it with matplotlib or do anything that you want...
I downloaded the graph example to plot using processing. https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Graph I just downloaded processing so it is version 3. The processing part of the example does not run. I am new to processing so will appreciate the help.