How do I make a simple linear graph?

August 14, 2006 2:20 PM

I would like to make a simple percentage-bar graphic to insert into a Microsoft Word document, but am not sure how to do it or even which program to use. Any suggestions?

I am on a Mac, OS 10.4.6.

What I would like to do is conceptually simple, but I'm not sure if I have the software or the know-how to do it.

I'd like to make several horizontal bars, the length of which would represent 100% of the total duration of certain events.

Then, I'd like to mark several highlighted (i.e., shaded and/or colored) sections of this bar which would correspond to portions of that duration. On one of these bars, for instance, I need to mark the spans from 2.97% - 5.01%, from 12.15% - 14.57%, and about ten more such subsections.

Perhaps slightly more complicated: I'd like to make another couple of bars of a similar nature, but would like to divide them not by percentage, but by absolute duration. And then I would make similar highlighted sections, but they'd be based on start and end times, not percentages.

That is: in one case, the duration of the event is 82 minutes, and the start/end times which correspond to the two examples in the above paragraph are 2:47 - 4:08, and 10:02 - 12:02. I figure this is slightly more complicated because I would have to assign a numerical value (not just "100%") to the total length of the bar.

In other words, it's the same information, but it would be represented in two different ways on the two different bars.

Does that make any sense?

My questions are:
- Which program (freeware? part of Microsoft Office?) is best suited for this task? (I have a program called Grapher, which I just opened for the first time, but it doesn't seem to do what I need.) I don't own and have never used Illustrator, and don't even know if this is something it can do.
- How do I use this particular program to make these graphical elements?
- How do I import these graphics into a Word document?
- I'll need to label each highlighted section with, say, a letter, and then compose a corresponding list below the bar which indicates what each letter represents. How do I do this?

Apologies if this has been asked before - I wasn't sure what search terms to use.
Also, I have to run out the door in a moment, so I won't be able to comment in this thread for a few hours. Sorry 'bout that.
Thanks in advance!

posted by Dr. Wu to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Did you try inserting a chart?
posted by k8t at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2006

Also, Microsoft Word's help section can be truly helpful. Search for insert chart.
posted by k8t at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2006

check this out and this as well.
posted by elle.jeezy at 2:48 PM on August 14, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

I would definetly use Microsoft Office Excel. I'll try and step you through it, but i'm not sure what the differences are between the windows and mac versions of office.

- Open a new sheet in Excel. Input your data into one column.
- Highlight the column with your data.
- In the 'Insert' menu you can select chart. This will brng up a chart wizard that will create a chart for you. On the left hand side there are types of graphs. Clicking on these will give you more options for the type of graph. Judging from your question I'd say you need a "100% stacked bar" graph.
- If on the preview screen, the graph comes up with multiple lines, change the 'data series' to rows (or columns, that is, whichever one isn't selected.)
- The wizard will then bring up a screen which has tabs and sorts to let you label the graph, and various sections of it as you wish.
- Then insert the graph as an object in the open sheet.

From there you can simply copy and paste the chart into Word.
posted by cholly at 2:49 PM on August 14, 2006

elle.jeezy: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for those links! You made my day!
posted by parilous at 3:47 PM on August 14, 2006

Thanks, all - good answers here.

elle.jeezy, thanks for those links, but I honestly don't think I can make heads or tails of the instructions them. My experience with Excel is pretty much limited to using it to make pages with little boxes on them. The information on those pages doesn't make much sense to me, I'm afraid. (I'm glad that others can enjoy them, though!)

cholly: in the morning, when I'm not quite so tired as I am now, I'm going to give your method a shot. Looks pretty straightforward - thanks very much!
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:24 PM on August 14, 2006