Chapter 5 : Charts

1.Charts.............................................................................................................................................CA-71 a)Chart Types................................................................................................................................CA-71 b)The Charts Elements.................................................................................................................CA-72 c)Creating a Column Chart...........................................................................................................CA-73 d)Examples of different chart types..............................................................................................CA-78 e)Editing a Chart...........................................................................................................................CA-80 f)Pie Chart....................................................................................................................................CA-81 2.Exercises........................................................................................................................................CA-85

1. Charts
Charts and graphs can be powerful ways to convey information to the reader. OpenOffice.org Calc offers a variety of different chart and graph formats for your data. Calc allows you to customize charts and graphs to a considerable extent. Many of these options enable you to present your information in the best and clearest manner.

a) Chart Types
Although Calc can produce professional-looking graphs from your spreadsheet data, you don't need to know a lot about graphing and charting unless you want to create extremely sophisticated graphs. Instead, you'll simply tell Calc what data you want to see in the chart and select the type of chart you want Calc to produce, and Calc does the rest. Table below describes each of Calc's chart types. Different charts reflect different kinds of data. If you create one chart and realize it's not the best type of chart to use, you can request that Calc switch to a different type. Calc Chart Options Chart Type Areas Bars Columns Lines Net Description Emphasizes the magnitude of changes over time. Compares data items. A bar chart is a column chart with horizontal lines. Shows changes over time and compares values. A column chart is a bar chart with vertical bars. Shows trends and projections. Puts in each category an axis that radiates from the center of the graph (useful for finding the data series with the most penetration, as needed in market research statistical studies). Compares the proportional size of items against the parts of the whole. Illustrates a stock's (or other investment's) high, low, and closing prices. Shows relationships of several values in a series. CA-71

Pies Stock XY (Scatter)

b) The Charts Elements

Information shown in a chart must be informative. A chart consists of several parts that are used to graphically display the spreadsheet data. Among the basic elements are:

i.

Axis Features

Title - any explanatory text can be displayed next to an axis; Value Range - if you aren't satisfied with auto-specified value ranges, you can set them manually;

ii. Diagram Features

Major and Minor Grid Lines - specify their visibility, thickness and color.

iii.Legend Features

Position - a legend can be located in any corner or at the center of any edge of the diagram. You can also specify whether it should be located inside or outside of the diagram; Legend Item Arrangement - you can arrange legend items vertically or horizontally; CA-72

iv.Label

Features

Appearance and Shadow.

v. Title

Features

Position within the chart; Text Alignment;

c) Creating a Column Chart

We will use the small table of data in Figure 1 to demonstrate how to create a column chart.

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Figure 1: Table of data for charting examples To create a column chart, first highlight the data to be included in the chart, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Selecting data for plotting Next, open the AutoFormat Chart dialog using one of two methods.

Click on a cell in the area of the spreadsheet where you want the chart to appear, and then select Insert > Chart from the menu bar as shown in Figure 3.

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Figure 3: Insert chart from menu bar Or, click on the Chart icon on the main toolbar (Figure 4) and then click in a cell in the area of the spreadsheet where you wish the chart to be.

Figure 4: Insert chart from menu tool bar Either method will bring up the Auto format Chart dialog (Figure 5).

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Figure 5: AutoFormat Chart: Screen 1 The data range includes the numbers that we wish to chart. The checked boxes indicate that Calc has recognized that the entries in the first column and the first row are not numbers and it is suggesting that we may want to use them to supply labels. The labels in the First column will be used to label the x-axis and the labels in the first row will be used in the Legend. If we did not want to use these labels we could unchecked the boxes and Calc would just ignore the column and the row in creating the chart. To select the type of chart or graph required, click Next.

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Figure 6: Choose a chart type On the Choose a chart type (Figure 6) page, select column by clicking on its icon. To view a preview of the chart that displays the title, labels and legend, select the Show text elements in preview checkbox at the left of the dialog. This preview will update every time you select a different type of chart, and provides you with a good idea of what your finished chart will look like. Click on Next again. This takes us to the Choose a Variant page where we have a choice of five different types of column chart. Again we need to scroll down to see all the choices. We will stay with the suggested format, Normal, and click on Next again. As shown in Figure 7, we can set titles for the chart and the axes on this page. Since the option box for Chart Title is already checked, type in a new title Equipment Rentals. Accept the Legend option. The default for the axes is No Label, shown by the unchecked boxes and the grayed out text. Check the option boxes and add the x-axis label Months and the y-axis label Volume.

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Figure 7: Title, legend and axes labels Next click on Create to get a column chart complete with title, axes labels and the default legend

.Figure 8: Basic column chart with title and axes

d) Examples of different chart types

We will use the same data that we used to create the chart in Figure 8 to illustrate some of the other charts that Calc can produce.

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i.

Bars (2D & 3D)

These charts provide the same features as columns, but they are horizontal.

Figure 10: 3D perspective bar chart Figure 9: 2D bar chart

ii. Lines (2D & 3D)

These charts are another way of displaying the same data against a set of categories as a bar chart. The choice of which to use, a bar or a line, depends on the purpose of the chart.

Figure 11: Normal 2D line chart

Figure 12: Line chart - deep

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iii.Pies (2D & 3D)

Pie charts can be used for showing the parts of a whole. The pie chart can be separated or keep as a solid circle.

Figure 13: 2D pie chartOffset 2 (exploded pie chart)

Figure 14: 2D pie chartnormal

Pie charts can effectively present information in some cases, particularly when there are only 2 or 3 pieces in the pie. However, they are not usually a good choice for presenting data as the number of pieces in the pie increases. A bar chart may often be a better choice.

e) Editing a Chart
To edit the axes of a chart that you have inserted: 1. Double-click on the chart. A gray border appears around the chart and the menu bar now contains commands for editing the objects in the chart. 2. Choose Format - Axis, then select the axis (or axes) that you would like to edit. A dialog appears. 3. Select from the available sections and make the required changes (for example, select the Scale tab if you want to modify the scale of the axis). 4. Click OK. In your document, click outside the chart to exit chart editing mode.

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To edit a chart legend: 1. Double-click on the chart. A gray border appears around the chart and the menu bar now contains commands for editing the objects in the chart. 2. Choose Format - Legend or double-click on the legend. This opens the Legend dialog. 3. Choose from the available tabs to make modifications, then click OK. To edit a chart title that you have inserted into a OpenOffice.org document: 1. Double-click on the chart. A gray border appears around the chart and the menu bar now contains commands for editing the objects in the chart. 2. Double-click on the default title text. A gray border appears around the text and you can now make changes. Press Enter to create a new line. 3. A single-click on the title allows you to move it with the mouse. 4. If you want to change the formatting of the main title, choose Format - Title - Main Title. This opens the Title dialog. 5. Select one of the available tabs in the dialog to make modifications. 6. Click OK. In your document, click outside the chart to exit chart editing mode.

f) Pie Chart
To create a pie chart within a Calc spreadsheet document, follow these steps: 1. Select the text and data that is to appear within the chart.

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2. Go to the Insert menu and select Chart from the options that appear. 3. When the AutoFormat chart window appears, the selection made in Step#1 should appear in the range field. If the selection is correct, click NEXT. If the selection is not correct, click the shrink button located next to the range field to enter back into the spreadsheet Select the appropriate cells containing the data to appear in the chart.

4. In the next window to appear, select the appropriate chart type. Use the scroll bar located on the right side of the window to view all the available selections including the pie chart. Select the appropriate Data Series options using the radio buttons below the Chart Type selections and click the checkbox Show Text Elements In Preview to view how the chart will be labeled. Then click the NEXT button.

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5. In the Display selection area that appears in the next window, type a Chart Title within the text field provided. Make sure the checkboxs are selected for both the Chart Title and Legend.

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6. Click the Create button to complete the operation. The completed chart should appear within the spreadsheet.

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2. Exercises
1. Based on the data below, create a column chart for each of the following to show: Export of Local Fruits (in thousand tonnes) January Mango Durian Guava Papaya Banana 55 60 38 45 90 February 60 50 94 45 67 March 55 54 68 44 96 April 43 56 2 54 56 May 23 4 67 67 22 June 12 35 65 55 43

a) The export of local fruits from January to June. b) The export of local fruits in March. c) The export of durian from January to June. d) The export of mango, guava and banana from April to June. 2. Create one pie chart for each of the following to show:

Sales of Most Popular Operating System 1992 DOS MAC WINDOWS LINUX 200 456 448 56 1993 543 321 767 456 1994 432 433 555 324 1995 98 65 765 435 1996 654 55 999 765

a) The distribution of sales for the popular OS in 1995. b) The distribution of sales for the popular OS in 1992. c) The distribution of sales for the popular OS in the last 4 years. Give a proper title for each chart. Add Data Label showing label and percentage. Add legend at the top of the chart. CA-85