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http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=67518





------- Additional comments from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Jul 20 07:09:10 -0700 
2006 -------
How to reply to comments in a linear fashion?  Hum.

Again, the QP reference is only for reference.  It isn't the best but it is
better than what either Excel and OOo have at this time.  At least in the
opinion of 4 different people I work with.  BTW, I won't use Excel as a
reference for anything good and productive in my experience.  If you have not
used QP, then it is hard to explain.  The menus and UI's are much more intuitive
than what either OOo or Excel have to offer.  Isn't the idea of using software
to make things easy.

In regards to automatic creation.  This is one of the biggest complaints about
MS Office that I hear almost weekly.  It won't let the users do what they want
as it feels it knows better.  I have converted some to OOo just because of this.
 In research, we need to display information in what some may term "not the
normal way of doing things."  We need control.  This is why many scientists
around here will use LaTeX instead of any word processor.  Same with external
graphing programs because Excel won't allow them to graph the data as needed.

Most of my stuff work is line charts.  Now to me, if there are links, then it
isn't a scatter chart.  If there are X-Y values, then to me it requires the
editting of the X and Y series.  Now the X-values can be numbers or names of
what ever, but it is still a series of data.  Names are data.  The data being
plotted are all series and in science, they are not always nice and neat.  Even
in Bar charts, I may want to change the Base series or the X-axis series to meet
the need of the presentation or how I want to represent the data.  I may want to
have two or three charts based on teh same data set without having to copy or
reformat the spread sheet.  I may use Column A on one chart with data in B, D,
and F but the next chart may use Column  C for the X axis and use data from B
and F.  Same data sets, just minor changes.

Most of my supervisors work is line charts.  Most of my co-workers work is line
charts.  As in the example, the X-axis can be almost anything depending on the
process and what we are trying to display.

As Line Charts are X-Y in most cases, then the ability to edit the X series and
select it from wherever it needs to come from is a needed benefit.

I spent a year working on some data that required nine graphs of the data for
each data set.  For three of the charts, it was a simple X-Y line chart.  All
the data was in nice neat columns X first then Y1 and/or Y2 as needed.  The next
series of graphs were modified versions of graph 2 and graph 3.  I needed to
reverse the series in some cases and change the full series.  I didn't want to
go through all the hassles of having to re-lable everything, put in the
formulas, etc.  It was just easier to change the order of the series.  This
wasn't that hard in OOo as the charts were simple.  If they were more
complicated, then I would have been in trouble.

The idea isn't to clone MS but to provide a better product.  If you look at
3997, there are allot of people that want an easy ability to edit the series.  I
want the same thing but with a better UI.

The UI in Chart 2.5 is not bad, but I think it could be better.


--------
The new chart wizard has one page in its roadmap to select the ranges for series
(the same as in the data-source-dialog). If you would like to show the series
differently, please explain what you want to have.

There is allot of reading in the proposed changes.  I have not had time to play
with the build that much.  I do have other work to do. :) But this is important
enough in my books to require the time.  I would love to see OOo as a much
better product than Office.

In my opinion, the chart wizard should be a smart to allow a new user to create
a chart of their liking by selecting the series being used and then create a
chart to as powerful that the experience user can edit all the various titles
(Main Title, Sub Title, X-Axis, X2-axis, Y-Axis, Y2-Axis), legends (for each
series), All series, background image, etc.  These could be through "Advanced"
buttons on the Wizard but need to be accessable.  Experienced users can then use
the Wizard instead of creating a chart and then having to go and edit it.  

Give the users control of the whole process if they wish.  I don't see why there
needs to be two steps or even two different UI's for edtitting the chart
properties and the wizard.  Both achieve the same result, the users charts.  You
may not like Tabs, but I find them quite useful in my day to day work.  They
help keep things organized in a busy day.  I like the idea of being able to make
one click on a chart and be able to change most if not all of the properties,
involved with the chart.  I spent some time looking through the issues and found
many that have to do with selecting and editting charts.  I will have to read
more before I can comment on them.  All that I have read so far could be
resolved with an intelligent UI.

I guess you have to have a Supervisor that is on your case for some data for a
presentation that needs to be formatted just right and exported and on his
computer before he leaves work and the country today.  And it is 10 minutes
before quitting time.  Try to change the formatting of all the lines because the
presentation is going to be on a big screen instead of being printed.  Or change
the text of all the Axis because the audience cannot know what the actual names
are but only respective names for security reasons.  This seems to happen weekly
here.

----
Again, the QP reference is only that, an idea.  It is better than what is
presently available in either OOo or Excel.  Lets be better than all three are
at this point in time.

In regards to the specifics of Legends and series names.  I do agree with you on
the associations.  The issue is, those names are not always with the particular
data.  I do like the idea of associating an individual cell with the legend or
just typing in the legend I want.  If I have a chart that has a legend "Secret
Chemical X" but I need to have it say "Some chemical" for a particular reason,
then I should be able to do this in the chart UI, not have to edit the spread
sheet.  Control to the user.

I do agree with the changes to sequences and data series.  Again, the UI should
allow you to change this when you need to.  I have a chart that uses one data
set and I add another.  The UI should allow me to do that without having to
create a new chart from scratch.  I see this as a great tool for on-going
research.  Todays data is on Sheet 4, I create a chart.  The next day I get more
data and I put it on Sheet 5 and I can then open the UI for the chart and add
that data to the chart.  Extend the X-series or add columns to a bar chart or
just add more Y-series to work with the present X-series.  User control and not
being limited by the program thinking it is smarter than me.

----

This is an interesting discussion.  I feel that it can be productive.  I really
doubt that I will get all I want and need but I would like to see OOo charting
to be the best of any spreadsheet program out in the public.  The UI for the
Wizard and properties is the first step.


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