changing graph type, color change

Question

Level 1

0 points

changing graph type, color change

Why when I change the type of graph it changes the colors automatically. I had blue, green, red (in the 3d fills) for a bar graph respectively representing 2009,2010,2011. I am adding this year I wanted to switch to a line graph - why are the colors changing auto to add a yellow and making 2012 red? How can I stop this? I find it quite difficult to change the colors of all the lines/symbols using the 3D fills, actually it doesn't work very well @ all, so I would prefer not to have to do this for 10 graphs per client @ 5 clients. Is there a more efficient way to accomplish this?

Also brings me to my next question. I was attempting to use the copy style, paste style function with the graphs - to ease the pain of all of this. When I do that it only pastes the axis scale (exactly what I don't want copied)! Is there a way to c&p the STYLE...the colors, weight, and data symbols of the lines. Therefore if I must do all the color change manually I would only have to do it once?

Thanks so much. 🙂

MacBook, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Feb 6, 2012 6:31 AM

Reply

Answer 1

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Feb 6, 2012 7:08 AM in response to fletcher88

(1) Is your question dedicated to Numbers for your MacBook which run OS X

or is it dedicated to an iDevice running iOS 5.0.1 ?

The apps are different.

(2) As far as I know, in the app running under OSX, the asked features are unavailable.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 6 février 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.2

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

For iWork's applications dedicated to iOS, go to :

https://discussions.apple.com/community/app_store/iwork_for_ios

Reply

Answer 2

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Feb 6, 2012 9:49 AM in response to fletcher88

Here's a possible workaround.

(NOTE: untested)

Add columns to your data table to accomodate as many future needs as you think you will need.

Label the columns with the years, and enter some temporary 'data' into these columns to produce the lines/bars/datapoints you'll need for the next step.

Add the new columns to the chart's data table.

Set the colours and weights as desired.

When all is 'perfect', delete the temporary 'data'.

This probably will NOT stop the automatic assignment of standard colours/weights when you change chart types, but should preserve your choices as you add data to the pre-set table and chart described.

Regards,

Barry

Reply

Answer 3

fletcher88 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 6, 2012 5:29 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Macbook OS X 10.7.3

Reply

Answer 4

fletcher88 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 6, 2012 5:32 PM in response to Barry

correct me if i am wrong (or i may just not be getting what you are saying) but when I delete the temporary data those columns will still be there...can't have that bc i need to present the data table? If i delete the temp columns as a whole then the graph will disappear?

Reply

Answer 5

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Feb 6, 2012 8:21 PM in response to fletcher88

Here's an example, using a Line Graph.

The first graph uses the full table, which has a column for each year, and extends to 2017, using 'placeholder data.'

For the second, all of the data, and the header labels (year) was deleted from the table.

Not good for presentation (nor was the table with all those empty cells), so columns E (2012) to J were selected and Hidden.

When data became available for 2012 (ie. about 10 or 11 months from now), the hidden columns were Unhidden, the label and data were entered into column E (2012), and columns F - J were again Hidden.

I haven't tried this with bar graphs yet. A closer look at the structure of your data and a screen shot of a sample bar graph would be useful in avoiding a 40 day trek through the wilderness. 😉

Regards,

Barry

Reply

Answer 6

Feb 7, 2012 9:14 AM in response to fletcher88

Fletcher,

I'm thinking that the easiest way to do this would be to create one edited "template" table and chart in a "scratch" document. Then copy and paste this template into your client documents and paste each client's data into the template before deleting the old table and chart.

Jerry

Reply

Answer 7

2Skip2

Level 1

11 points

May 25, 2012 10:52 AM in response to fletcher88

Hi Fletcher,

is this the sort of thing your wanting or have I misunderstood. Picture shows chart for Client 3 ready to move into place overlaid onto others. All client information can be added to or subtracted from deleted altogether and/or saved as a template without loss of colours or anything else. Switching chart types might be a problem have not tried it but will and let you know.

You could associate Client with chart by making their name and plot same colour.

Ping if You need anything. Remember though, I'm only a newbe to Numbers to.

Reply