Different colours on bars?

Hi Scrodinger,

This is a bar chart (category chart) in Numbers 3.0.1. Where all Y values are in one column (Column B) they are all the same colour (blue). Where each Y is in its own column, they are automatically coloured differently.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi S,

If all values are in one column, I can't find a way to add different colours to each bar (in Numbers 2.3 or Numbers 3.0.1)

Regards,

Ian

You are really trying to go against the grain of how a chart is supposed to work with a data series.

If you want them to be different colors, you need to plot each as a separate series. Because you only have one data series, you can do this:

Click on your chart then look at the lower left corner of the Numbers window and it should have "Plot Columns as Series". Click on that and change it to "Plot Rows as Series". For the labels on the X axis, you can make your lables manually it with text boxes or semi-automatically with a 1-row table and some formulas. In my example I moved the legend down to the axis and stretched it out until it matched where the bars were.

Hi Badunit,

Thank you. This is one of those 'ahaa!' moments. In Numbers 2.3, swapping between Plot Rows and Plot Columns is done top left on the Table after selecting the Chart:

Thank you.

Regards,

Ian.

That does work but my all my x axis labels all disappear.

Yes, that is true. Which is why I wrote this:

"For the labels on the X axis, you can make your labels manually with text boxes or semi-automatically with a 1-row table and some formulas. In my example I moved the legend down to the axis and stretched it out until it matched where the bars were."

In Numbers 2.3, swapping between Plot Rows and Plot Columns is done top left on the Table after selecting the Chart

It took me a while to finally see how to do it in Numbers 3. It seems like a strange and out-of-the-way place to put that setting. Putting it on the table made much more sense.

Hi S,

Blank cell in B1 (therefore no axis label. I don't know how else to turn that off). Follow Badunit's advice on moving and resizing the legend to mimic X-axis labels.

In Numbers 3.0.1 (Plot Rows as Series):

Your next trick is to colour the bars as green apples, yellow bananas, red cherries and brown dates 😉.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi Schrodinger,

"I think I'll just have to accept that a single colour will have to suffice and my liking for multicoloured charts will have to take a back seat on this project!"

That acceptance may represent a breakthrough in the clarity of your charts.

Colour can be used as an informative element in a chart, to draw attention to a single bar in a bar chart, to distinguish between data of different series (the default in Numbers), or to mark data points that cross thresholds (eg. temperatures above or below freezing, or within specific ranges).

If colours on the chart do not carry meaning, then they add noise, distract from the elements that do carry meaning (eg. the length of a particular bar), and make the chart less readable.

(True also for text in ALL CAPS. 😉)

Regards,

Barry