How to Make a Chart in Open Office Calculate
Open Office is a free open source set of office productivity software from Sun Microsystems. These programs mirror MS Office and provide a free alternative to using those programs. The spreadsheet program in this suite is called Open Office Calculate and has many of the features you would find in MS Excel. However, in order to not exactly copy Excel, these features are often located in different places within the program. Learning where and how to access a feature such as graphing will help you become proficient with this program.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open the Open Office Calculate program. Click on the "File" menu at the top of the window and click on the "Open" command. Browse through the folders on your computer to find the file with the data you would like to graph. Click it to select it and click the "Open" button.
-
2
Highlight the data you want to graph by clicking into the first cell, holding down the mouse button, and moving it over the entire range of data.
-
-
3
Click on the "Insert" menu at the top of the screen. Scroll down the menu and click on "Chart" to open a window with chart options.
-
4
Look at the "Range" box on the first screen of the chart window to ensure the correct data is being selected. Click on the check boxes next to "First Row as Label" and "First Column as Label" if you would like to use these labels on your chart. Click on the pull down menu under "Chart Results in Sheet" to select the sheet in your workbook you would like the charts to appear in. Click on the "Next" button.
-
5
Click on the chart type you would like the data to be displayed in. Click "Next" to go to the graph variant screen. Choose the variant for your chart. Click on the check boxes next to "X axis" or "Y Axis" under "Grid Lines" if you want to see any lines on your graph. Click "Next."
-
6
Click on the check boxes next to "Chart Title" or "Legend" if you would like those to display (You will have to provide a title). Click on the check boxes next to "X Axis" or "Y Axis" if you would like the axises to have a title. When finished, click "Create."
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Unlike Excel, Calculate gives you the option to automatically place the graph on a separate sheet from your data. Use this to create better looking workbooks which can provide your managers with dynamic reports.
Remember to select the row and column title in order to provide people with a graph that makes sense. Otherwise, people will know have no idea what you are charting.
