Graphs in Illustrator

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
October 8, 2025
2 replies
289 views

Hi everyone

I'm having a frustrating time understanding the graph tool in Illustrator. I have 70 graphs to create from excel data for an InDesign report, very little time.
I follow the instructions, i have a clear sample of the chart i need, yet the chart i get in Illustrator makes no sense. I transpose the rows and columns, still no luck.
Where can i get clearer instructions on how to solve my problem?

Correct answer Helena28273452awqt

Thank you both, Doug and Kurt. I've since moved on and created the graphs in powerpoint, to export as a pdf and place one-by-one in InDesign. 70 graphs just is too many to have to fiddle around in Illustrator, as much as I'd love to make it work.

H

Helena28273452awqtAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Thank you both, Doug and Kurt. I've since moved on and created the graphs in powerpoint, to export as a pdf and place one-by-one in InDesign. 70 graphs just is too many to have to fiddle around in Illustrator, as much as I'd love to make it work.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

You're getting the years as an unnamed data point in each set.

H

Helena28273452awqtAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you for this input. I'm not sure how to fix it, would you have ideas?

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

I can get somewhat close with this layout:

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to get Illustrator to treat the years as strings instead of numbers (hence the label). You may need to retype them after setting the data.

Given the unfortunate state of the tool in Illustrator it's probably worth rethinking if you need to do this.

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