On Tuesday 24 February 2009 19:41:23 [email protected] wrote: > > All, > > > > Is this a way to enable shadows for lines drawn by line graphs using > > spreadsheet application in OO 3.0.1 ? > > Here is an example of what I am referring to > > http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SaQ-jWy0fLI/AAAAAAAAEnA/a- > > gWvZrcPzg/s1600-h/CSselectedCitiesDec2008.jpg > > > > Thanks > > > > Ganesha > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > Does adding silly shadows to the lines ADD ANY INFORMATION to the plot??? > > One should strive to AVOID chart junk. > > Unfortunately, too many people want OpenOffice to be able to create the > same horrible graphs that Excel creates. I don't even know where to begin > with what is wrong with the graphs so many people use. Apparently students > learn the bad graphics from their instructors and this goes on endlessly. > As a statistician it makes me ill. Are statisticians the only people who > know how to make correct graphs? Rather than trying to make the graph > "pretty", one should strive to make sure the graph correctly presents the > information without distortion. Adding "shadows" to a line graph adds > absolutely no information - it just makes the comparison of the lines more > difficult. The graph has very bad axis labels (way too many dates - you > don't need all those dates). You also don't need all the horizontal and > vertical lines - they add nothing - this is a graph to show trends - not a > table to show detail. IF YOU MUST have the horizontal and vertical lines, > you could at least tone them down by making them a very light gray. > > At least you don't want to use pseudo-3D effects like you see in the > ridiculous 3D pie charts! The message Tufte has promoted is to AVOID chart > junk (like shadows and unnecessary lines) and ONLY use ink on the page to > provide information (that is, you want the DATA-TO-INK ratio to be high). > > Edward Tufte has written a number of books about making informative > graphics (http://www.washington.edu/computing/training/560/zz-tufte.html). > Everyone making graphs should be familiar with the principles of good > graphs. Then use a program like R (http://www.r-project.org) to make > intelligent graphs. (R is THE software for statistical analysis and > graphics - and it's completely open source). You should also see what > Tufte says about presentation software and what's wrong with the way it's > used. > > Rick B. >
Dude ......... chill. Your reply though informative, doesn't help me solve my problem. Fortunately, or unfortunately, human beings like pretty things ....... Apple for instance ;-). I am not in the statistics business but, I DO have to deal with people. If anybody knows how to enable line shadows in spreadsheet line graphs, I would appreciate the information very much. -Ganesha --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
