One of many benefits of Analyse-it is the range of statistical charts available – charts you normally can’t create in Microsoft Excel without a lot of effort and some nifty tricks.
Underneath the charts are still just standard Excel charts, and like any Excel chart you can easily change how they look.
The options Excel offers to change the chart look are overwhelming, and not all are useful -- gradient fills, bitmap fills, 3d effects, and WordArt to name a few. Serious researchers rightly shun such effects, referring to them as chart junk – fancy effects that add nothing. More often than not these effects detract from the main purpose of the chart, often deceiving readers, rather than clearly conveying information.
Our primary goal in developing Analyse-it was to make the charts as clear as possible. They are free of chart junk, such as 3d effects. They are large so you can clearly see them on-screen and when printed. The formatting is bold and simple. And they look like charts in peer-reviewed published research. You can drop an Analyse-it chart into your own document, with minimal editing or formatting, and it will be immediately understood by readers and accepted by peer reviewers alike.
In Analyse-it v3 we’re trying to improve the charts further. We’ve improved the colours so the charts are clearer and look more modern. We’ve also provided tools so you can quickly change the chart look. Rather than trying to find the right menu option or dialog box you need to change the chart – and the options are more confusing in Excel 2007 – Analyse-it will provide tools so you can very quickly:
- Change the chart title
- Change the axis name, minimum, maximum, units or tick marks
- Increase or decrease data-point marker size, or series line weight
- Label data points with the observations or case identifier labels
- Show or hide the legend
- Change the name of a series in the legend
- Show or hide gridlines
Again we need your feedback! What changes do you make to the Analyse-it charts before publishing? What tools do you need to quickly change the charts to suit your preferred style? Post a comment and let us know.