Basic tutorial on line charting?

Hi Mark,

the first step I'd recommend would be the built-in Numbers help. Just open it from within Numbers via the Help menu or with the keyboard combination cmd+?. In the section about charts you'll find a step-by-step guide on creating diagrams and tips for selecting your data the right way.

Regarding your diagram: does it look like this?

The easiest way to make sure the dates are rendered as axis values is to make sure they are in a header column. Delete the chart, select your table and click on the small down-facing chevron in the top column bar:

In the context menu that appears, you can convert the column into a header column.

Afterwards, create the line chart again, and you'll find the dates correctly used as axis parameters:

I hope this helps.

Kind regards!

Hi Mark (and immo),

A nice example from immo, and one that will work well in a case where the dates are sequential and regularly spaced.

As noted in my post above, though, the Line chart is a Category chart, and the 'dates' are just labels, naming the categories. If the dates are not regularly spaced in time, the chart will present a false picture of how the data has changed over time.

Try immos first table, selecting the same three columns as selected in the upper image, then selecting an x-y scatter chart, rather than the line chart.

Your result should be very similar to the second chart in immo's example (but without the connecting lines, until you use the chart inspector to add connecting lines, and make them a bit thicker than their default one pt weight.

Regards,

Barry

I don't know of any online tutorials, but there is a "charting basics" template that has alot of examples.

Jason

Hi Mark,

I think the two keys here are the type of chart you chose, and the type of cell you have the dates entered in.

In the Chart button's pop-up menu (this one is from Numbers 3.6.2-yours will have one or two more choices), most of the available types are "Category Charts." The first column of the table supplying data to the chart is a Header column, and contains the names of the categories. The labels are applied to the Category Axis, and each category is allotted the same amount of space. The Line Chart (red circle) is a Category chart.

The x-y scatter chart (green circle) has two value axes—an x axis (horizontal) and a y axis (vertical), and positions data points according to both x and y values of the data. The table supplying data to an x-y chart contains a header row, containing names of each series of y values, but the x values (Dates) are data, not 'labels', and must be placed in a 'regular' (non header) column of cells, to the left of the columns of y data.

For sake of demonstration, assume you have these dates:

January 1, January 8, February 15, February 16 (all in 2019).

If you want those dates to be evenly distributed along the x axis, then put the dates in a Header column, the associated data in non-header cells on the same rows, Select the (non-header) Data cells (B2::D5), and choose the Line Chart from the Charts button's menu..

If you want those dates distributed along the x axis with spacing relative to the number of days between them, place the dates in a non-header column, the associated data in the same rows of the following non-header columns, choose the data cells (Including the dates, which are now 'data', not 'categories'),and choose x-y Scatter Chart from the Chart button's menu.

Changes from the default scatter chart produced:

Increased the number of steps in the x axis labels to put labels closer to the data points.

Chose Straight lines to connect the data points in each series, then used the Style panel to increase the thickness of the lines to 2 pts.

Resized both charts for a better fit here.

Regards,

Barry