Generating graphs with custom style

[Artis Taurins]

I looked if this topic has been addressed, but didn't find (or didn't look well enough) what was I looking for specifically. Is there a way to automate graph generation based on a custom style template? The perfect workflow would be that I've a spreadsheet file with manually filled fields which then translates into a generated graph. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that Illustrator doesn't have the option to make/use your own template. Could this be done by using Scripting and/or Data Merge in InDesign? Also, there's a need for two chart types: single and stacked bar.

[Bill Silbert]

This should have been posted in the Illustrator forum. This is InDesign which does not have a graphing feature. You should also know that the graph feature in Illustrator does not have an "automatic" way of applying a style to a graph. There may be someone who has devised a script for this. You should post your question with that in mind on the Illustrator forum.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

In Illustrator, a styled graph can be duplicated, and then enter new data manually or imported, and retain the styles previously applied to graph.

[Artis Taurins]

But is it possible to make the graph look exactly as in the picture? Maybe I haven't explored all options, but as much as I've worked with graphs in Illustrator it's possible to change colors and fonts, but there's no way to change the location of elements and spacing between them. In this particular case, percentage or count number and their spacing in relation to the text and bars.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Artis_Taurins,

there is a way to do that with InDesign. The real problem is to datamerge it.

And to express the value 0 for a given element. A text frame cannot have 0 width or 0 height.

A character cannot be formatted with 0% height or 0% width. And you cannot do more than 100 GREP Styles in one paragraph.

You can consider a special font like the Chartwell series of fonts:

https://www.fontshop.com/families/ff-chartwell

https://indesignsecrets.com/creating-instant-charts-with-chartwell.php

https://indesignsecrets.com/creating-charts-graphs-automagically-data-merge-chartwell.php

But as far as I know there is still no way to express fractional numbers with it.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Artis Taurins]

Thank you for the input. This is worth considering.