Can I create a graph or pie chart in Framemaker?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
December 10, 2013
2 replies
1690 views

I would like to create graphs and pie charts in Framemaker.
Does anyone know if FM can do this - the same way you can use data tables in Excel to create charts and graphs.
If FM doesn't have this functionality in-built, then is there a plugin available that will allow me to do this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

Russ Ward

Legend

This got my brain spinning with delight, because I had never thought of such a thing. It would be one of the funnest scripting projects ever, but unfortunately probably not worth the effort. It would take lots and lots of engineering just to barely mimic the most basic capabilities of applications like Excel. Bar charts would be the easiest, because lines and rectangular objects are straightforward and easily manipulated with a script. A pie chart would be a different matter, because the drawing tools don't have anything that would easily form a pie slice shape. There is the polyline object which might be a candidate, but FM doesn't seem to expose the line curve properties to a script.

Anyway, thanks for the fun thoughts, but I'd have to agree with the general sentiment that an external tool would be much more logical. It would be easier to import data and graphic files from an external tool, than to put that data into an FM doc and try to create the graphics within.

Russ

A

Anonymous

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm already using Excel to create the charts and importing into FM - but we are working on a new book format that will mean a big increase in th amount of charts. So I was hoping FM had a plug-in that would handle this, as it would make it a lot easier to format the charts to match the style of the rest of the book (eg: charts using same colour/paragraph/character properties).

I think a plug-in that can do this would be fairly popular - save a lot of time. I would definitely buy it if it was available.
FM can do nearly eveything else, I thought this may have been a simple thing - but then again I know nothing about FM plug-in programming.
Nevermind, back to Excel then - thanks for all the advice.
Cheers.

Arnis Gubins

Inspiring

FrameMaker does not have any charting capabilities nor is there any plug-in for it that I'm aware of.

If you have Excel, then you can use use that to create the chart and just copy&paste into FM.

A

Art_Campbell1

Inspiring

You can do kind of crude stuff with the drawing tools, but if I were you

I'd use Visio or Excel and export whatever you create as PNGs or other

graphic files.

Art Campbell

art.campbell@gmail.com

"... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and

a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson

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DoD 358

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