Quattro Pro lets you present data graphically by plotting it in a chart.
In this section, you'll learn about
creating charts
adding titles to charts
adding linked data to charts
For more information about creating charts, see "Reference: Presenting spreadsheet data in a chart."
Creating charts
Creating a chart lets you represent spreadsheet data graphically. You can create a chart automatically and have all the chart options chosen for you, or you can create a chart by using the Chart Expert, which guides you through the steps of creating a chart that best suits a data set.
To create a chart automatically
1 Select the cells you want to plot.
If the surrounding cells contain explanatory labels, you can include them in the selection for use as the chart axis labels or the chart legend.
2 Click the QuickChart button on the toolbar.
3 On the spreadsheet, click where you want to insert the chart.
Note
When you create a chart automatically, it is placed on the spreadsheet in a floating graphics window; however, you can view it on its own page. For information about viewing a chart on its own page, see "Managing and sharing graphics."
Tip
If you want to customize the size of the chart, click and drag diagonally on the spreadsheet.
To create a chart by using the Chart Expert
1 Click Insert Chart.
2 Follow the steps of the Expert.
Adding titles to charts
You can customize a chart by adding titles. You can add titles to the chart, or to a specific axis.
You can add a title for any numeric chart type.
To add a title
1 Click a chart.
2 Click Chart Titles.
3 Enable the Main title check box, and type a title in the box.
You can also
Add a subtitle Enable the Subtitle check box, and type a subtitle in the box.
Add a footnote Enable the Footnote check box, and type a footnote in the box.
Add an axis title Enable one of the axis check boxes, and type a title in the box.
Adding linked data to charts
You can display the data from linked cells on a chart. This is useful when you use a chart type that shows information that lacks specific numeric content (for example, in a surface chart). If you select multiple cells, a linked picture of them appears on the chart. If you select a single cell, the data in that cell displays on the chart (for example, the number in the cell). The cells in the chart update with any changes you make to the data or properties of the notebook cells.
To add linked data to a chart
1 Double-click a chart.
2 Click Insert Link to cells.
3 Click and drag a rectangle on the chart where you want the data to appear.
4 Click the Pointer button next to the Select cells box in the Link cells dialog box, then choose the cell or group of cells you want to display.
5 Enable one or both of the following check boxes in the Border options section:
Row borders
Column borders
6 Enable one or both of the following check boxes in the Grid lines section:
Horizontal
Vertical
7 Enable the Maintain aspect ratio check box in the Display scaling section to match the same aspect ratio used on the notebook.
Note
You cannot select noncontiguous selections with the Link to cells tool.
Reference: Presenting spreadsheet data in a chart
This topic contains reference information related to creating a chart, such as how to set up the chart data, and the different chart types that you can create.
Plotting chart data
How Quattro Pro plots data depends on the range and values of the cells you select before you create the chart.
When a selection contains more rows than columns or an equal number of rows and columns:
Quattro Pro plots each column as a single series.
If the first column contains labels, the labels are placed along the x-axis.
If the first row contains labels, the labels are used as the chart legend.
When a selection contains more columns than rows:
Quattro Pro plots each row as a single series.
If the first row contains labels, the labels are placed along the x-axis.
If the first column contains labels, the labels are used as the chart legend.
Setting up chart axes
All charts except pie and doughnutcharts have two references for plotting data: the x-axis and the y-axis. The x-axis is a horizontal line at the bottom of the chart pane with fixed reference points; the column labels in your data series are used for x-axis labels to explain what each data series represents. Y-axis labels show the values being represented. Depending on the data series, Quattro Pro determines the range and increment amounts of the y-axis.
There are a few exceptions to this format:
Horizontal charts have a vertical x-axis and a horizontal y-axis. Quattro Pro reverses the axes of horizontal charts automatically.
In XY charts (scatter diagrams), the x-axis series is data, not labels. Quattro Pro scales the x-axis to match the data.
If the chart is a 2-D bar, line, or area chart, you can assign any series to a secondary y-axis, which appears on the right side of the chart.
Area charts
Area charts (except 2D and 3D, unstacked area charts) plot cumulative rather than individual values. The first series is plotted without modification. The second series is plotted using the top of the first series as the baseline. The third series is charted on top of the second, and so forth.
Bar charts
Bar chars display each value in a series as a bar. Values are plotted against the y-axis scale, the taller the bar, the greater the value. Bar charts are ideal for comparison or ranking of items against one scale.
Quattro Pro lets you create stacked bar charts, and bipolar bar charts. Stacked bar charts show the relationship of each value to the total, for example, how total sales are divided between regions. Bipolar bar charts split the chart data and plot it along two y axes.
Bubble charts
Bubble charts are similar to scatter charts, however, in a bubble chart, a third value is represented by the size of the bubble.
Gantt charts
Gantt charts are used to track the progress of a project. The expected time to complete each task in a project is plotted as a horizontal bar that is colored in gradually as the project progresses.
High/Low charts
High/Low (open-close) charts are often used to track daily stock prices. You need at least two series to create this type of chart (to represent the highest and lowest price a stock reached each day).
The type of High/Low chart that you can create depends on the number of series that you want to plot.
If you want to plot Chart types available
Three series High/Low-The third series is not used in the chart.
High/Low/Open-The third series is the open value (the price of the stock at the beginning of the business day).
High/Low/Close-The third series is the close values (the price of the stock at end of the business day).
Four series High/Low/Open/Close-All four series are used in the chart.
High/Low/Open or High/Low/Close-The fourth series is not used in the chart
High/Low-the four series are used to represent two companies
Five series High/Low/Open/Close/Volume-The fifth series is used to plot the trading volume
High/Low/Open-The third series is the open value (the price of the stock at the beginning of the business day). The fourth and fifth series are discarded.
High/Low/Close-The third series is the close values (the price of the stock at end of the business day). The fourth and fifth series are discarded.
High/Low/Open/Close-Uses the first four series and discards the fifth series
A common use for the fifth series is to display the volume data, or number of shares of stock that changed hands that day. Volume data is usually much larger than High/Low data, so the High/Low data does not show up well in the chart. The High/Low-bar chart has special formatting to deal with this problem. High/Low-bar charts plot the first four series as regular High/Low charts. The fifth series, however, is plotted as bars against the secondary y-axis. The secondary y-axis scale is adjusted to plot the bars on the lower quarter of the chart, where the bars are unlikely to cover the High/Low values.
Histograms
Histograms let you graphically display continuous or discrete data by grouping data into a series of bins representing a certain range of values, and displaying the frequencies of each of these bins in the form of a bar on a chart. Histograms are useful for examining the distribution of a data in different ways by changing the number of bins and the data ranges they represent.
Line charts
Line charts plot series values as points, and connect the points in each series with a line. Line charts best illustrate trends over a period of time.
You can create 2-D and 3-D line charts.
Mixed charts
Mixed charts combine bars, lines, and areas in the same chart to highlight a series or contrast different series in the chart. Quattro Pro provides three combination charts : area-line, area-bar, and line-bar. Line bar charts and area bar charts plot the first series as a bar, and plot all other series as lines or areas.
Pie charts
Pie charts plot each value as a series and illustrate how each series relates to the whole. You can create 2-D and 3-D charts, as well as doughnut and column charts which are a variation of the original pie chart.
You can create a pie of a pie chart where one slice of the pie chart is expanded into an individual pie chart that displays all of its components.
Radar charts
Radar charts can highlight trends. Growth trends show as outward spirals; static or fluctuating trends look more like circles or stars. Radar charts can also simplify series comparisons; the series with the highest values occupies the most area.
Scatter charts
Scatter charts have x-axis series that contain numeric data instead of text labels. The y-axis scale is calculated from the data in the series. Each series value is plotted as a pair of coordinates. The first coordinate is an x-axis series value; it determines where the data point is placed relative to the x-axis. The second coordinate is the corresponding value in the series you are plotting; it gives the data point's position relative to the y-axis.
Quattro Pro provides two different types of scatter charts: XY and XYX. The difference between XY and XYX charts is how they interpret data from the spreadsheet. If the chart is plotted by columns, the first column in an XY chart becomes the x coordinate, and the rest of the columns become the y coordinates. In an XYX chart, the first column becomes the x coordinate, the second column becomes the y coordinate, the third column becomes a different x coordinate, and the fourth column becomes a different y coordinate.
Surface charts
Surface charts plot rows and columns as lines that form a "mesh" on a 3-D frame. When you chart a square array of cells, values in columns correspond with mesh lines from left to right. Rows of data correspond to mesh lines from front to back. Each data point is represented by an intersection of two mesh lines. How the surface of the mesh is shaded depends on the type of surface chart.
