UNDERSTANDING THE GRAPH TOOLS

All the tools shown in Figure 14.17 create various types of graphs to communicate information. When you click and drag with a graph tool, a spreadsheet-type window opens where you can enter the information with which the graph should be created. You can also import graph data from another program. Each type of graph has a specific way that information has to be entered for it. See the Adobe Help Center and Chapter 22, "Speeding Up Illustrator and Data Functionality," of this book for step-by-step instructions on creating each type of graph.

Figure 14.17. The Graph tools create different kinds of graphs to display data.

To place a graph on your page, you can click and drag with a Graph tool to create a specific graph area or click on the artboard to enter specific measurements for your graph.

Double-click on any of the graph tools to set the options for graph creation:

• Column Graph tool: Use to create vertical column graphs.

• Stacked Graph tool: Use to create vertical column graphs with more than one measurement in each column to communicate relationships of data.

• Bar Graph tool: Use to create horizontal column graphs.

• Stacked Bar Graph tool: Use to create horizontal column graphs with more than one measurement in each row to communicate relationships of data.

• Line Graph tool: Use to create graphs that use trend lines in different colors to compare data.

• Area Graph tool: Use to create line graphs that fill with color, indicating totals that are created by the trend line.

• Scatter Graph tool: Use to create graphs that compare data as sets of points on an x-y axis.

• Pie Graph tool: Use to create graphs that contain wedges representing data's percentage of a whole.

• Radar Graph tool: Use to create graphs that compare data at points in time or different categories, demonstrated by slices and markings in a circle.