Make Charts keep same Dimensions

Is there any solution to permanently fix charts to stay the same size? If I change inputs for X and Y (I'm not changing the inputs in any dramatic or unreasonable way) the charts move even with Lock on?



All I've done is flip cell values D7 and D8 but this makes the charts change size as can be seen from the grey "crosshair" dividing all 4 charts in the second image.



This means there is little point in charting anything in Numbers because the charts always change / move, the same applies to a smaller bank of 20 charts to the right of these main 4.


Am I the only user with this issue?


Cheers!

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Jul 30, 2023 10:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best answer

Then something else was done wrong. Here is a series of screen shots as I went through the process:


Original Excel document, in Excel:




Excel document imported into Numbers (looks basically the same as in Excel):


The imported document after I selected the chart and clicked the top left table style in that document (which is not a necessary step, I did it just to show what might happen):



Next is a new, fresh Numbers document after I deleted the default table then Copy/Pasted the table&chart from the imported document into the new document. At this point the chart still looks the same as in the other document and still looks like an Excel chart:


And, finally, after selecting the chart and clicking on the top left table style:



Notice in the last step how the white background around the chart went away and the line colors changed to Numbers colors.

Posted on Oct 9, 2023 10:16 AM

28 replies

Aug 26, 2023 10:28 AM in response to Bardonicloud

You should copy/paste the entire sheet that has the table and the chart. If you do one then the other, the chart will no longer reference the table. It will probably create a new little table for the chart that is just the chart data. At a minimum you need to copy the chart and the associated table at the same time. But if you do the whole sheet, you will get all the tables and all the charts on that sheet and it will look be just like they were in the other document (until you start applying new styles to the charts and tables).

Sep 12, 2023 6:46 AM in response to Badunit

Success! Thank you. I managed to copy/paste all of the data into a new document and changed every chart to an apple Numbers formatted chart and the chart borders now seems finally stable, so thank you again for your advice on this time consume topic.


I am taking it from your reply that I must recreate the whole sheet (not just format it's charts Apple) again from scratch as I did try just formatting some charts in a different project and the border problem is still happening, pity there's more tables in this new project than the one being discussed here! 🥲😅


Nice one!

Sep 13, 2023 3:34 AM in response to Badunit

I have tried to get this new sheet's charts to remain fixed in size/position but if I change the calculators Asset Prices from £/$ to the Dow Jones (with numbers like 12100 changing to 33000) the borders of the chart or the chart itself changes size/position and I am not sure how to remedy it? I have built a new sheet and copied the old tables and charts and reformatted the charts to Apple but they still move?




Cheers for any help, as this new different rebuilt sheet should have fixed charts like the sheet I was referring to a the very top of this thread.

Oct 5, 2023 6:06 PM in response to Bardonicloud

After copying them over to a new Numbers document did you then select each chart and apply a chart style to it? If not, they are still "Excel" charts. When you are done there should be no white background around the chart+title. Chart backgrounds in Numbers are only on the chart, not around the title.


  1. Select a chart
  2. Go to the sidebar and click on one of the chart style icons
  3. Repeat for other charts
  4. Do a similar thing for all the tables


If you don't like the results after you've done one, you should be able to reformat that chart to look like you want it to then save it as a chart style and use that chart style for the rest of them.


I can't guarantee this is going to fix anything but we can hope.

Question marked as Best answer

Oct 9, 2023 10:16 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Then something else was done wrong. Here is a series of screen shots as I went through the process:


Original Excel document, in Excel:




Excel document imported into Numbers (looks basically the same as in Excel):


The imported document after I selected the chart and clicked the top left table style in that document (which is not a necessary step, I did it just to show what might happen):



Next is a new, fresh Numbers document after I deleted the default table then Copy/Pasted the table&chart from the imported document into the new document. At this point the chart still looks the same as in the other document and still looks like an Excel chart:


And, finally, after selecting the chart and clicking on the top left table style:



Notice in the last step how the white background around the chart went away and the line colors changed to Numbers colors.

Oct 10, 2023 2:33 PM in response to Badunit

Thank you so much for spending the time to further explain what might be/is happening with these chart sizes @Badunit!


Re:


"The imported document after I selected the chart and clicked the top left table style in that document (which is not a necessary step, I did it just to show what might happen):"


Image 3: I was wondering why doesn't the chart conform to the Numbers Format Style selection and make it turn into a Numbers chart like in the last image? Why the need for the extra step of:


"Copy/Pasted the table&chart from the imported document into the new document"

Oct 15, 2023 10:57 AM in response to Badunit

"Next is a new, fresh Numbers document after I deleted the default table then Copy/Pasted the table&chart from the imported document into the new document."


I'm not sure why I am seeing an Excel format menu style in a Numbers spreadsheet though. i.e, new sheet v4, -- that was created and has the copy and pasted data from the previous Numbers sheet, (an Excel document that was originally imported into Numbers), -- results in an Excel chart when I click on new chart? You mentioned "new document." Can I take it from my continued efforts to correct this issue that using a new sheet added to an existing document isn't sufficient to fix the issue?


Yet I got the 4x large charts (with 20 small Greek charts) sheet to work and the chart perimeter borders don't move when Y axis values get bigger... umm perhaps that was a new document, what do you reckon?


This is what I see when I select a new chart, an Excel covered red/blue line graph that is not translucent or have the brighter red/blue lines that Apple have designed Numbers charts with (left of the image):



Make Charts keep same Dimensions

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