Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I help people communicate data clearly with graphs. In my last post I criticized a figure showing Facebook valuations over time.

Adobe Illustrator's Graph tool opens a miniature spreadsheet-like window into which you can enter rows and columns of data to produce column, bar, line, area, scatter, pie and radar graphs. Its line ...

Most graphs chart data that you currently have, but in the course of running a business, you may find you need to design graphs before their data is available. For example, you might use Microsoft ...

For the past few years, I've been trying to understand how to make graphs using RRDtool (Round-Robin Database tool) after failing miserably to understand MRTG (Multi-Router Traffic Grapher) before ...

Different types of graphs and charts are needed to present results from experiments. Graphs and charts need to be drawn and labelled correctly. Use patterns in the data to reach a conclusion in an ...

The ease with which you can create a line graph in Excel on your PC or Mac will do much to dispel the misconception that the program is arcane and unapproachable. With just three clicks of a mouse (or ...

Bar graphs seem like one of the simplest ways to represent data. Many people assume that the longer the bar, the bigger the number it represents. Sometimes bar graphs represent an average not a total ...

Getting a number of vendors to talk to each other, let alone align, is no easy feat. Adding academics and researchers does not necessarily make things easier. Now try adding to the mix a fragmented ...

It’s hard enough for fluent English-speaking parents to understand complex test scores and measures used to track students’ progress. But what about parents who don’t speak English well and aren’t ...

To ensure charts and graphs are compliant with ADA standards, please use alt text to describe the nature or content of the data shown. If a chart is too complex to explain properly through alt text ...