Select and edit a data series

[bwoodruf]

Dear Neofolk,

Working with NeoOffice 2.2.2 Patch 2 on Mac 10.5.1

I imported an Excel spreadsheet that has an XY chart with 3 data series.

The chart plots our Sprint usage by month for two phones.

How do I select and extend each data series as I enter a new month's data.

I've searched the documentation and can't find the answer.

Any help is much appreciated.

[OPENSTEP]

Unfortunately you've hit up on one of the biggest frustrations in the OOo 2.2 interface; it's not possible to edit data series after a chart has been created, at least not that I know of. If you're tracking monthly usage, the approach that comes to my head is to create the initial charts with data series for the entire year. Then it should be possible to enter the new values for empty portions of the data series and have it update. Not elegant, I know, but it may work.

Another approach that might be helpful could be named cell ranges (Insert > Names > Define, use that to add new named ranges as well as edit them). I'm not sure if you can create a chart dependent on a named range, but if so then perhaps editing the named range may do the trick.

Good luck; hope either of those might be the start of the right direction.

ed

[bwoodruf]

Dear Openstep,

Thanks for the post. I'll quit looking.

D*mn! I want a MicroSoft-free Mac. Excel is proving to be difficult o replace.

With sadness,

Burt Woodruff

[amayze]

I don't know where/if its in the help files but it is possible to modify the data range of a chart after completion.

Make sure the chart is not selected, then right click on it. In the contextual menu that appears is an option to "Modify Data Range…". It does what it says on the tin!

If you don't see this menu item, it is probably the case that you have double clicked the chart - you can tell this as the chart will have a grey border as well as blue handles.

HtH

Andy.

[bwoodruf]

Dear Amayze,

Thank you. Yes it is possible and I just did it.

With the graph NOT selected, hover the mouse over the graph and right-click (mac control-click). Select the "Modify data range" item Dialog box appears: "Modify Chart Range Data".

With three data series in an XY plot, there are 4 range references: the abcisa values(date of invoice) and the 3 ranges for the ordinate values (his usage, my usage, total usage). I edited the range values directly in the dialog box.

I was blinded by my assumption that the data series would look more like those in Excel.

With much appreciation.

Burt Woodruff

[Lorinda]

This tip has been added to the "New Articles Needed" page of the wiki.

Lorinda, friendly wiki elf.

[jgd]

I've just added the new page, but it's only in French for the moment. English translation on my to-do list

Thanks amayze for the tip. I did not see anything about that in the help.

Jacqueline