More often than not, numerical data is best presented visually, in a chart.
There's no question, a good chart can have tremendous visual impact and make boring data come alive.
So, a good 3d bar graph or pie chart can really help when it comes to illustrating numbers. Stephanie Edwards-Musa wanted to know if there was an easy way to get create chart graphics for inclusion in posts here on ActiveRain.
There is.
Google To The Rescue
The recently updated spreadsheet application from Google has a very cool feature that allows you to export charts to an image file (PNG) to use wherever you see fit. The graphic you see here in this post was created using a Google spreadsheet. Here is a link to the actual Tom And Jerry spreadsheet.
The video simply walks through the steps required to go from data to chart to graphic. It's ridiculously simple. And, the tool gives you visual feedback on the changes you make to your chart as you go.
Here's the video:
And For My Fellow MAC Users Out There... iWork's Numbers has amazing charting features.
Example 3d Chart from Apple's iWork '08.
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Jeff Turner aka respres
Very informative....thanks for the post, I'm going to see if I can graph some poor statistics.....maybe we can fluff the numbers with google as well.
Wicked thanks Jeff. You read my mind. This was one of the ones I was waiting for.
You rock!
It's so cool to learn from all these tech-y AR members! Thanks for this great post on charts.. nice video.
Jen... timing was right. :)
Jan... thank you!
Another great Video Jeff!
I charted Mike Mueller's Productivity while watching Jeff Turner's Videos and I was off the chart!
Oops , I had it upside down.
Oh well.
Nicely Done!
Jeff, I had made a few charts in the Google spreadsheet and couldn't figure out how to save it as a picture image. :) Thanks again for your help!!!
Too cool Jeff! Thanks so much for the tutorials. They are really helpful and I am reading every one!
www.chartAll.com
Charts can be created from manually typed data, Google spreadsheets, data linked from url, etc.
Includes basic charts, XY charts, XYZ 3D charts, Gauges, Geographical (mapping / GIS) charts, financial OHLC, and much more.
regards
david
www.chartAll.com
Jeff, I have been waiting for a tutorial like this on charts to add to my endless list of stuff to learn....Good stuff!
Thanks! ginger
Nancy... thank you.
Lola... yes, watching the actions helps a great deal.
Ginger... glad to be of assstance!
Mike.. very funny!
Stephanie... my pleasure.
John... you're right, it will be very interesting.
Dan, Dave, Stephanie, Joanne, Ana, Carol, Fran and Susie... thank you!
Good post. What I found particularly interesting is that Apple's graphics look so much better than I'm ever able to produce. I think I'm developing Apple-envy.
Jeff,
Thank you for this helpful tip. I wish I had read it 10 minutes ago before I fought converting my Excel chart into an image file to post on my latest post. Oh well. Thank you for helping make our lives a little bit easier. Simple is so much better than the workaround.
Dale... simple is almost always better.
Gary... yes, I'm feeling that way right now! :)
Jeff, I think I ate too much halloween candy. I played with google docs for awhile, but I must be missing something. When I tried to save my excel spreadsheet, not even a graph, google docs wouldn't let me save as a png file or jpg file. I'm totally confused. This is my url http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=o17892890853128455455.296674657115419011# of the document I created. How do I insert it in my next blog.
Please help.... i
Jeff, I think you are right, it only copies the graph not the excel document. Thanks again
I don't know how to say thanks again other than saying thanks again. I have viewed all but one of your tutorials (i well be viewing the last one next) and I have learned so much in the last hour, I am so exited, I can't wait to go and implement what you have taught me. 8)
Jeff,
Thank you for the again for your efforts to make this simple for all of us!
Has anyone told you that you rock recently? Sometimes your stuff wooshes over my head but when I am looking for it, there is a major "AHA" moment!
Thanks Jeff!
Jeff, I just happened on this. Love it and will definitely give it a try. Thanks, as always, for your good stuff! You can tell you love what you do, and we all benefit.
Teri and Meg... thank you.
Stephen... it's truly my pleasure. Nice to connect with you on Twitter.
I continue to be suprised by how much good info can be found on Active Rain. Very cool. I found the Google Docs application but I've already customized these very nice graphs in excel. Is there any way to save those as a png file? They aren't bad considering I don't have a MAC. Thanks for your help.
Well, it's not the greatest graph in the world, but thanks to you I have my first graph in one of my posts - Southeast Valley Foreclosures...
This literally took about 3 minutes, and I have now discovered something new. Thanks again for helping me find such a great tool.
Thanks Jeff! I'll have to revist Google Docs for graphing. If anyone has trouble with a png file, I've had some success with using a screen capture ap (jpg) and then saving to Irfanview to crop my market data graphs.
Jeff, this is great, we are visual creatures by nature and this is a great tool. When I go to listing appointments I hand Sellers a graph and it gives them a quick overview of the market trend for the past year or whatever it might be. It gets the point across very quickly.
Someone just clued me in to this post. Thank you for this great instruction and all that you post that is so helpful! I will practice and see if I can put some graphs in my blog and on my website. Thank you!!!
Thank you for your great instructions on this...I was just trying to do this last week and could not figure it out.
Thanks we have been using Excel and it is more complicated than the Google thanks for the tutorial.
Hey David,
Thanks for the information. As a Science Teacher with a lot of Math emphasis, I love the graphs. I like to use them as often as possible. I like the Tom and Jerry. Graphs do not have to be boring.
You're all very welcome. Google just updated the toolbar for this feature as well, so it should be a bit easier to navigate as well.
Confession: I've have a graph phobia. I have been blogging for 2 years and have never, ever, ever created a graph because I've convinced myself that it would take me too long to learn how- HA! Leave it to you to prove me wrong, and show me why I'm wrong. So this evening I take the plunge! I think.
These tutorials are so helpful to me, Jeff. I've used a few of them for stuff that would have taken me a long frustrating time to figure out on my own.
Thanks so much!
Mrs. Lussier... if I'd have known, I would have taken my laptop down to the bar in Las Vegas and showed you right there and then. I'm honored to play any role at all in your continued success!!!
>I would have taken my laptop down to the bar in Las Vegas and showed you right there and then.
Yes, I believe that. Exactly why I didn't tell you! ;-D
You are a smart woman. :)
Jeff I have a problem, I don't know if I can incorporate all the great info in my AR posts...
Paul, you're killin' me right now. :)
Thanks for the great tool. I'm playing with it and will perfect my charts ... in time. I can see where this will have great applications for blogging.
I oversee 7 real estate offices and provide our agents with a broad range of statistics and graphs so I wanted to suggest a great site for making fantastic "totally free" graphs of any data you might put together http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx
You can export in various formats but the most useful is the SVG export option for those of you with Adobe Illustrator experience you will be able to open the SVG in Illustrator and manipulate each and every part of the charts, graphs and data to look exactly as you want it.
SVG(Scalable Vector Graphics) The fantastic thing about the SVG option on this free graph site is that the graph is a Vector which means you can scale it up to the size of a dining table if you like with no loss in the print resolution. There are some free SVG editors out there as well.
Mark Passerby
www.PovVideotours.com
I find it amazing that this post is almost a year old and still getting comments at this pace.
Jon, I think the integration in the google docs suite makes it a winner.
I never realized that google docs could do that! I am trying to make my blog posts stand out more and have more visuals and this is GREAT!!!
Yesterday I struggled with Google Charts for a couple of hours to get a reasonably nice looking bar chart displayed. Today I found this post - wish I had known about it earlier, because by comparison, creating charts with Google Spreadsheets is a real time saver for static information. I think Google Charts (and a little programming) would be the way to go if your information changes and you want your chart to update dynamically.
Excellent! I was wondering why I couldn't just paste the carts for my market reports into my blog. This will help me immensely. Thanks for the help!
Jeff - I just did an AR search on making charts and this came up. I want to start adding charts and graphs to my market reports and never knew how. Thanks for the tutorial.
Hi and thanks for the great post! I will have to add some charts to my posts in the near future. Very informative. thx again!
Thank you Jeff. I was again considering putting some charts on my posts this evening and I remembered what a great tutorial you had presented several months ago about how to simply do so. I have watched it again and will use your instruction to start adding charts. I am again very appreciative of your sharing your expertise.
I finally created my first chart using this tutorial!!!!! I had bookmarked this post sometime ago, and today finally got around to playing around with this. Now I feel more comfortable talking about market stats on my blog. Thanks so much Jeff!!!
This is great stuff, thank you!
I am learning from this several years after you posted it! Geez! I am learning how to do Excel Charts in Active Rain tonight so this caught my eye also.
Several years later I am learning these google graphs and excel graphs for blog posts but that shows you the power of posts that stay out there working for you.