Making Charts
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
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Graphs and charts are a visual way to reduce columns of numbers to a meaningful visual context. The use of graphs and charts grew independently in a variety of disciplines, so there is a verbose terminology and often confusing verbiage. “There’s a sucker born every minute!”
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“Charting” Programs
Charting and/or graphing programs Charting and/or graphic modules that are portions of spreadsheets Graphs or charts produced by programs as standard output
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Data Types
Continuous - numerical or alphabetical data where the position on an axis represents some ranked continuum Categorical - data where the position on an axis has no intrinsic meaning
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Chart Bar Column Area Line Scatter Paired Scat Pie Ternary Polar Rose Contour Grid Contour
X Y Numerical Cat Cat Numerical Cat Numerical Cat/Num Cat/Num Numerical Cat/Num
Z * * * Numerical Numerical Numerical
Comments Histogram display
XYYYYYYYY XYXYXYXYXY % or totals Percentages Varies by discipline Count or % XYZ data Tabular format
Cat/Num Cat/Num Numerical Numerical Numerical Angle/ Radius/ Radius Angle Angle Numerical Numerical Numerical
Numerical Numerical
* = May have pseudo-3D charts
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Programs
Aabel, Deltagraph, Kaleidograph Excel, AppWorksSS, QuatroPro, Wingz Illustrator, Keynote, etc.... Data formats can vary widely from program to program - you must check with the particular program to see what it ‘expects’.
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Bar Chart
Region 1 Region 2
2007
2007
2006 Region 2 Region 1 2005
Object Name
2006
2005
2004
2004
0
50
100
150
.00 25.00 50.00 Selected Variables 75.00 100.00
Excel Aabel
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Bar Chart
Region 1 Region 2
2007 2006 2005 2004 0 25 50 75 100
Keynote
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Region 1 Region 2
100.00 90.00 80.00
2006 2007
Region 1 Region 2
200.00
150.00
2007
70.00 Selected Variables 60.00 50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 .00 2007 2005 2006 2004 .00 2004 2005 2006 2007
2004 2005 2004 2006 2005
Selected Variables
100.00
50.00
Object Name
Object Name
Line Chart
Area Chart
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Scatter Charts
untitled worksheet2
2006
70.00 45.00 65.00
60.00 Region 2
2004
38.75
2007 2006
50.00 45.00
2005
50.00 45.00 Region 3 40.00 35.00
2004 2007
55.00
Region 3
32.50
50.00
Region 3
40.00 35.00 30.00 25.00
30.00 25.00
70 .00
26.25
45.00
2005
40.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00 100.00 Region 1
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.00 65 .00 .00 20 .00 60 30 .00 .00 40 .00 55 .00 50 .00 2 Re 50 0 0 gi 6 on .00 on gi 0.0 0 7 45 1 Re .0 .00 80 .00 0 40.0 90 0 0.0 10
20.00
10
45.00
38.75
2006
50.00 45.00 Region 3 40.00 35.00 30.00 25.00
2004 2007 2005
50.00 45.00 Region 3 40.00 35.00 30.00 25.00
Region 3
32.50
26.25
70 0 .00 0.0 0 1 65 .0 .00 20 .00 60 30 .00 .00 40 .00 55 .00 50 .00 2 Re 50 n gi 60 .00 .00 io on g 70 .00 45 1 Re 0 .00 0 8 .0 0 40.0 90 0 0.0 10
20.00
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Pie Charts
2002 2005 2003 2006 2004 2007
Va Va_1 Va_2 Va_3 Va_4 Va_5
8% 10% 11%
7% 35%
29%
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3-D Pie Chart
1 2 3 4 5 6
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Ternary
0
100 90 80 70 60
V3
untitled worksheet
10 20 30 40 V2 50 60 70 80 90
50 40 30 20 10 0
V1
10 20 10 0 50 30 90 80 0 70 40 10 60
0
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Rose Diagram
10 350
20
340
30
40
50
60
33 0
0 32
31
30 0
0
290
280
70
80
N: 39 Max Count: 8 Mean Direction: 355.1° Circular Variance: 0.2832 Counting interval: 15° Orientation: Var_3
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