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MS Office Forum / Excel / Charting / November 2007Chart wizard funcitonality in Excel 2007?
I hope I'm missing something in Excel 2007. In Excel 2003, the chart wizard gives you access to lots of options when you create a graph--graph type, data range, the various series (including the X axis labels), the chart title and axis titles, gridlines, legends, and others. It doesn't take long to create the graph with most of the options you want and then tweak it pretty quickly. In Excel 2007, it seems that every option is a separate button/menu/choice. Setting the chart title, the x-axis title, and the y-axis title are three different operations. Ditto for pretty much everything except specifying the data range. I haven't timed this but my gut feeling is that it takes me at least half again as long to create a graph in Excel 2007 as in Excel 2003, maybe double the time. I surely hope I'm missing something simple. Thanks for any advice! liz Liz - It's not just you. In general I find the new Office 2007 interface less efficient than in 2003. For charting, though, I find it terribly inefficient. Everything, as you state, is a separate button or control, so it takes much more clicking to get anything done. I'm tempted to develop a Chart Options substitute as an add-in, just to regain some of my lost speed. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ >I hope I'm missing something in Excel 2007. In Excel 2003, the chart wizard > gives you access to lots of options when you create a graph--graph type, [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > liz Jon, Thank you for your response. I was hoping I was missing something. I don't like Office in the first place, but Office 2007 is an abomination. I cringe every time I think of the kazillion lost hours of productivity spent trying to get anything done with this software. Fortunately, I don't have to USE it for my own work most of the time, I just have to teach it. I really appreciate you MVPs and the info you provide, especially on the MVPS web site. I spent lots of time there several years ago when I was told that I had to teach Office so I could learn the right way to use the software. liz > Liz - > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Tutorials and Custom Solutions > Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com I couldn't agree more -- charting in Excel 2007 is a gruesome, time-consuming task that seems to be a giant leap backwards from Excel 2003. The true functionality of 2003 seems to have been replaced by 4704 different beveling/lighting/material choices -- not a good trade-off. > Jon, > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > Tutorials and Custom Solutions > > Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com This is awful. Excel 2007 is awful. I'm just trying to create some scatter plots (with lines) of data. And it's impossible. I've been using Excel for years....and it's taken me an hour and I still don't have a SIMPLE graph done. Where's the x axis and y axis? How the #*#*#* are we supposed to create multiple data series? I feel like throwing my computer through the window. I can't believe that I can't create a graph...that Excel isn't intuitive and that no one around me can figure it out either. I will be uninstalling 2007 and asking for a refund. The entire suite of 2007 is slow and a huge step backwards...just like Vista. > I couldn't agree more -- charting in Excel 2007 is a gruesome, time-consuming > task that seems to be a giant leap backwards from Excel 2003. The true [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > > Tutorials and Custom Solutions > > > Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com Thank you all for this. So it's not just me. I have Office 03 and 07 installed on the same PC and I have actually timed myself making the same bar graph with a secondary axis line graph. Took me 10 minutes in 03, 2 hours later and I still don't know how to figure it out in 07. And I teach 03, moving to 07 in our new SOE. No joke Microsoft, dumping the chart wizard is a freakin' disgrace. 07 compares favourably if you click finish on the first screen of the 03 wizard - very simple charts are just as quick (no improvement), but complex ones are made unnecessarily difficult. And what about the right click options? In 03 we could go to any of the wizard screens to make our changes. Not so in 07. And the source data dialog is hopeless. I'd love to see the UAT signoffs on that one. I'm reminded of Shrek: "I'm only trying to help!" "What you're doing is the opposite of help." Please Microsoft, give us the 03 chart wizard as a downloadable add in. I'll make sure it gets added to the SOE before our 3000 staff start freaking out. > This is awful. Excel 2007 is awful. I'm just trying to create some scatter > plots (with lines) of data. And it's impossible. I've been using Excel for [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > > > > Tutorials and Custom Solutions > > > > Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com On Nov 29, 2:48 am, Mike Smith <Mike Sm...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > Thank you all for this. So it's not just me. > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > And the source data dialog is hopeless. I'd love to see the UAT signoffs on > that one. It said "SHIP IT and be DAMNED!". > I'm reminded of Shrek: "I'm only trying to help!" > "What you're doing is the opposite of help." I have always felt the M$ help tends to give you the least useful general advice in the worst possible order and at the wrong level of detail (and in some cases with examples that cannot work eg inverting a singular matrix). A Microsoft definition of HELP itself could easily read: He - masculine pronoun LP - black vinyl disk played at 33 rpm Although technically the statements are correct they shed no light on the matter in hand. > Please Microsoft, give us the 03 chart wizard as a downloadable add in. > I'll make sure it gets added to the SOE before our 3000 staff start freaking > out. Save your company a whole lot of money. Do NOT buy XL2007 until they fix the major bugs and shortcomings. You are not compelled to buy new software just because it is available. XL2003 is a very fine and stable product. XL charting in 2007 is just about adequate if all you ever do is plot simple bar charts of sales by quarter, but it is a total disaster for real XY plots of just a few thousand points that 2003 found trivial. More than an order of magnitude slower and a complete and utter waste of time. Stay with 2003 or suffer the consequences! > > This is awful. Excel 2007 is awful. I'm just trying to create some scatter > > plots (with lines) of data. And it's impossible. I've been using Excel for [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > > functionality of 2003 seems to have been replaced by 4704 different > > > beveling/lighting/material choices -- not a good trade-off. It is a particularly bad trade-off for my clients who include scientists with a lot more data than the average business user. 2003 works beautifully for them. Whereas 2007 is almost completely unusable even on modest datasets. > > > > > Liz - > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > > > > it takes much more clicking to get anything done. I'm tempted to develop a > > > > > Chart Options substitute as an add-in, just to regain some of my lost speed. If enough people refuse to buy XL2007 then eventually MS will have to do something about it. As long as customers keep buying a defective product there is no incentive for them to put it right. I don't really see how anyone can recommend their clients to buy XL2007 at present. Regards, Martin Brown > I don't really see how anyone can recommend their clients to buy > XL2007 at present. I recommend that my clients do not upgrade. If they ask about the new features, I either remind them how to achieve what they want in 2003, or explain the tradeoffs. More rows and columns, at the cost of slower calculation and less efficient charting capability. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ |
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