iWork® For Dummies,® 2nd Edition

Chapter 17

Working with Charts

In This Chapter

Adding charts

Using Chart inspector

Choosing chart types

Some people have no problem looking at a table of numbers that fills an entire page and seeing the patterns right away. For other people, a chart can clarify data, making it much easier to understand. If you’re preparing information for several people to understand, you probably need to present both the raw data and a visual representation in a chart.

The same rules that apply to numeric data apply to visual data: Be clear and don’t mislead.

For many people, using charts is a matter of trial and error. You usually start with the data, and then you prepare the chart and try it out on a test subject (yourself, to begin with). Does it clarify things? Does it help you understand? Numbers is a great tool to use for this experimentation because it makes it easy to both create charts and change their attributes.

The interfaces to cells and formulas differ between iOS and OS X (see Chapters 15 and 16). Charts, the subject of this chapter, are the opposite case. Although iOS and OS X have minor differences, the interfaces are very similar. In fact, in this chapter, the screenshots switch ...