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General discussion

making a line graph

May 4, 2011 12:55AM PDT

I've used Mac 25 years & don't know how to make a simple line graph. I'm a church worker & want to chart growth/decline of churches over years/decades. E.g., in 1900 membership was one million. In 1910, 2 million, etc. What's the best way? I'm using a MacBook Pro, OS 10.6.7.

Discussion is locked

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It's got nothing to do with the computer
May 4, 2011 4:58AM PDT

you are using or the OS version.

You will need something like the app Numbers, part of the iWork suite, to crunch the numbers and produce a graph for you.

Easy really

P

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iWork for charts
May 4, 2011 7:19AM PDT

Great. I've recently installed iWork to do my taxes. Never set up a chart, tho. I look at iWork Help and it says to enter data from a table. Already I'm lost. How do I create a table? Walk me thru, please. Say...membership in 1960 was 100, 1970 was 200, 1980 - 300, 1990 - 400, 2000 - 300, and 2010 was 200. How do I chart that on a line chart? I'm going to be showing this to thousands of people on Powerpoint.

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Using Numbers
May 4, 2011 8:25AM PDT

create a table by opening Numbers.
What you see is a table.
Now enter your data along each row.
date number
date number
date number
etc.
That's the table done
Now drag your mouse over the table until all the data is selected.
Click Charts in the menu bar
Select the one that looks like a line chart and let go of the mouse.
Pooof, a line chart.

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Houston...
May 5, 2011 1:04AM PDT

Happy birthday! Glad you're feeling generous, cause I'm feeling needy. Hope you've got a little residual generosity the day after. Ok...trouble from the start. I click on Numbers and get not a table, but Template Chooser (Blank, Checklist, Checking Register, etc.). Choose the first Blank template, and enter data along horizontal & vertical cells?? Using iWork 09, MacBook Pro, OS 10.6.7. I'll get it here in a minute. Just not familiar with this program, and never made a chart before.
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Tom in Texas
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Numbers 101
May 5, 2011 10:16AM PDT

Numbers is a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel is.