Graph Maker

Type the rows and the bars follow

The table is the part you edit. Each row is a label and a number, and the bar chart is only a picture of that table. The sample that opens the page is a class poll: Apple 8, Banana 12, Orange 6, Grapes 10, and Strawberry 7, titled Favorite fruits in our class. Banana is the tallest bar. Change a vote and that bar moves before you leave the cell.

Add row puts a blank line at the bottom. The trash icon removes a row, and the last remaining row stays so the table is never empty. Press Enter in the value of the last row when you are typing a list and do not want to reach for the button. You can use it as a bar chart creator for a quick poll: the choices go down the label column and the votes go beside them.

Category axis and Value axis are the names printed under the chart and along the side, such as Fruit and Votes. They can stay blank. Show numbers on the chart prints each value on its bar, so a student does not have to guess the height against the grid.

Plot points with the XY graph maker

Choose X Y graph and the table switches to pairs. Those pairs stay separate from the bar chart, so a fruit poll is not wiped out when you open the coordinate graph. The sample is hours studied and a quiz score: (1, 62), (2, 70), (3, 68), (4, 81), (5, 88), and (6, 93).

Connect the points draws a line through the rows from top to bottom. That is the order you typed, not a sorted order. The dip at 3 hours is real: that score is lower than the row above it. If the line crosses itself, the rows are probably out of order. Sort by x reorders the table numerically and the line follows.

Turn Connect the points off and the same numbers stay as a scatter of dots. Include 0 in the scale is off for this example, because a quiz that runs from 62 to 93 would look almost flat if the axis started at zero. Turn it on when the class needs to see those scores against a full scale.

Turn the same rows into a spider chart

Spider chart uses the bar chart's labels and numbers. It does not ask you to type the data again. Each row becomes a spoke, and the shape joins the values. A radar chart, which is the same picture under another name, needs at least three rows. With one or two, the page waits and tells you to add more.

The spokes start at zero in the middle. The outer ring is a round number at or just above the largest value, with rings in even steps. On the fruit poll, 12 is the highest vote, so the rings run 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, Banana reaches the outside, and Orange sits closer to the center. If the highest value were 13, the outer ring would be 15 and no spoke would quite reach it. Show numbers on the chart writes the value next to the label.

It is a useful picture when one subject has several scores, such as a book report marked for ideas, evidence, organization, and conventions. It is a poor picture for a survey where the bars are easier to compare. If a number is negative, that spoke stays at the center. The table still shows the real value.

Keep zero on the scale unless you mean to drop it

Include 0 in the scale starts on for bar charts. A poll of 8, 9, and 10 should not look as if 10 is many times 8. The axis runs from zero, the bars start on the same floor, and the grid uses round steps such as 2s or 5s so the heights can be read out loud.

Turn it off only when the class is looking at a small change in a large number, such as temperatures from 68 to 72, and say that out loud so nobody treats the shortest bar as none. Negative numbers hang below the zero line. A week of morning temperatures such as 3, -1, 4, and -2 is a fair bar chart: the bars for -1 and -2 drop under the axis instead of being dropped from the picture.

Rows with a label but no number, or with a word where a number belongs, are left out of the picture. A note under the table says so. A blank label is still drawn, named Row 4 or whichever line it is, until you type a name.

Print the chart or save a PNG

Print opens the chart and the data table together, which is the copy you want for a worksheet or a bulletin board. Download PNG saves only the picture, with the title and the axis names on it, so you can drop it into a slide. The file name follows the title.

If Print does nothing, the browser has blocked the pop-up window. Allow pop-ups for the site and try again. If the PNG cannot be built, use Print. Nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no account. Refreshing the page clears both tables, so save or print before you close the tab if the class still needs the graph.