LibreOffice Calc: Create Charts

This tutorial will explain with examples how to draw charts with LibreOffice Calc. You will need some data prepared beforehand. We will create very basic charts in form of Bar Charts to visualize student scores of their subjects of Math, English, Science and Social. This should gives a basic understanding of making charts. Let's try it now. 

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

If you're a beginner in LibreOffice, start learning by our Calc Formulas The Series.

 

Dataset

Firsly, write a student score table like below from ABI to YENNY. Please notice the table spans across A1:E11 where the student names A2:A11. Save the document as calc-draw-charts.ods.

 

Intended Result

We want to make student score charts of full subjects, MATH only, ENGLISH only, SCIENCE only, and SOCIAL only. This may help us to compare students' scores in every subject.

Create Chart

Step 1. Select the whole table that is A1:E11.

Step 2. Click menu Insert > Chart.

Step 3. Select Chart Type = Column.

Step 4. Select Data Range = don't change anything.

Step 5. Select Data Series = don't change anything.

Step 6. Create titles = don't type nor change anything. 

Step 7. Click Finish and a chart created.  

This chart compares all students on all four subjects. In our test, we saw that JOKO has the highest score on science (yellow) at the same time the lowest score on english (red).

Create MATH SCORE Chart

Step 1. With keyboard and mouse, hold Ctrl, Click Drag A1:A11.

Step 2. Still holding Ctrl, click drag B1:B11. 

Step 3. Both STUDENT NAME and MATH SCORE columns selected. See picture below.

Step 4. Click menu Insert > Chart > repeatedly click Next > Finish.

Step 5. Chart created. 

In this test, our chart compares between students in MATH subject and we find WIDODO's as the highest and SILVIE's as the lowest.

Create ENGLISH SCORE Chart

Step 1. With keyboard and mouse, hold Ctrl, Click Drag A1:A11.

Step 2. Still holding Ctrl, click drag C1:C11. 

Step 3. Both STUDENT NAME and ENGLISH SCORE columns selected. See picture below.

Step 4. Click menu Insert > Chart > repeatedly click Next > Finish.

Step 5. Chart created. 

In this test, our chart compares between students in ENGLISH and we find that once again WIDODO's the highest while JOKO's the lowest.

Create SCIENCE SCORE Chart

Step 1. With keyboard and mouse, hold Ctrl, Click Drag A1:A11.

Step 2. Still holding Ctrl, click drag D1:D11. 

Step 3. Both STUDENT NAME and SCIENCE SCORE columns selected. See picture below.

Step 4. Click menu Insert > Chart > repeatedly click Next > Finish.

Step 5. Chart created. 

In this test, our chart compares between students in SCIENCE and we find that JOKO's the highest while WIDODO's the lowest.

 

Create SOCIAL SCORE Chart

Step 1. With keyboard and mouse, hold Ctrl, Click Drag A1:A11.

Step 2. Still holding Ctrl, click drag E1:E11. 

Step 3. Both STUDENT NAME and SOCIAL SCORE columns selected. See picture below.

Step 4. Click menu Insert > Chart > repeatedly click Next > Finish.

Step 5. Chart created. 

In this test, our chart compares between students in SOCIAL and we find that WATI's the highest while CINTA's the lowest.

Final Result

You should get resulting charts like the following.

Edit Charts

To edit a chart, edit the source data table. Calc should updates the chart immediately according to the data. We can confirm this works at Calc 7.2 (Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri built-in version). If you find the update does not work, you may need to either rewrite the source data table manually (not using RANDBETWEEN formula), use F9, Ctrl+Shift+F9, or update Calc to latest version.

Delete Charts

To delete a chart, select a chart, press Delete, chart deleted. 

Export Charts to Image Files

Step 1. Right-click the first chart. 

Step 2. Select Export as Image. 

Step 3. Give name full-chart.png. 

Step 4. Click Save.

Step 5. Chart image file exported as full-chart.png. 

Step 6. Repeat step 1-5 for other charts with names according to each subject.

This is useful for further use for example including the charts in documents, or uploading them to the internet.

Now you should be able create basic charts out of numeric data. This can help you quickly compare multiple items like scores, funds, growth etc. See you next time.

 

---

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Ubuntu Buzz !