[Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

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mamba
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[Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by mamba »

Trying to create a timeline in the same way you can with Excel in this article.

Is should look something like this:
Timeline-for-Benjamin-Franklin.gif
I can get most of the way there, but I cannot get Calc to use a non-x, non-y column for data labels. If I say insert data labels, I end up with a numeric value.

Someone else tried it with OO here, but it still does not work for me:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=715878

The attached XLS Excel file should look like the chart above, but as soon as you try to edit it in OO, the data labels change to numbers.
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Excel-Timeline-Template.xls
(54 KiB) Downloaded 3214 times
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged [Solved].
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by jrkrideau »

Try inserting the data labels using INSERT in the tool bar rather than right clicking.
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mamba
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by mamba »

Doesn't work. Try it yourself.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by Hagar Delest »

Seems to work fine on W2k with the tutorial from the Ubuntu forum, see attachment:
Excel-Timeline-Template.ods
(48.71 KiB) Downloaded 4244 times
If something doesn't work in Ubuntu but does with Windows, try the Sun/Oracle version: [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co.

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mamba
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by mamba »

That's excellent. Did you do that by making the data labels "categories"?
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by Hagar Delest »

Yes. So the procedure should be:
0. Select B5-B19, hold Ctrl and select E5-E19
1. Start chart wizard
2. Step 1: Select XY scatter (next)
3. Step 2: Unselect First row as label, unselect First column as label (next)
4. Step 3: Data labels, select C5-C19 (next)
5. Step 4: Add title, unselect Display legend and unselect Y axis grid (finish)
6. Right click one of the data points(yellow triangle), insert data labels
7. Double-click a label, unselect Show value as number, select Show category, select Placement: right
8. Right click a data point to select the series and Insert Error Bars
9. Select the Negative option and set Percentage to 100
9. Right click the whole chart, Insert/Delete Axes and unselect the Y axis.

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acknak
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by acknak »

Hey, that's a pretty twisted way to plot a timeline--I like it!

There does seem to be one glitch that I don't understand: if I open Hagar's sample .ods, activate the first chart, that shows the number labels, and do...

1) Right-click on a data label > Format Data Labels > Data Labels
___Show value as a number: NO
___Show category: YES
___OK (labels disappear)
2) Right-click anywhere > Data Ranges > Data Series
___Click the "Shrink" button to the right of "Data Labels" then select C5:C19
___OK

Then, I get the event labels.

If I open mamba's .xls document, the same steps do not work: I only get the number labels.

Odd. I wonder why Calc behaves differently with what (I assume) is the same object in the two different files?
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data labels

Post by Hagar Delest »

I had noticed it also at first and since it worked with a new chart, I forgot to check that. I just did and found out that the data label field was not set in the data series properties!

That's indeed a very nice way to make a easily configurable timeline.
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mamba
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by mamba »

Problem: if you have a lot of text as the data label, eg a sentence or two, it is placed on the chart in one loooooooong string, with no wrapping. It's unusable. How can we make it look like the example in the top of this thread, with word wrapping?

I can highlight the label (green box appears), but the box is not manipulable.
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by Zizi64 »

Problem: if you have a lot of text as the data label, eg a sentence or two, it is placed on the chart in one loooooooong string, with no wrapping. It's unusable. How can we make it look like the example in the top of this thread, with word wrapping?
Just double click in cell, and hit Ctrl-Enter on text position where you want to wrap it.
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by ken johnson »

Does it wrap inside the chart label if you use Ctrl+Enter (In the cell, not the formula bar input line) to force the text in the label's source cells to use more than one line?
Like this...
Multi-line chart label.ods
(14.87 KiB) Downloaded 1536 times
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mamba
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by mamba »

That works. Thank you guys. I'd like to see the data label box with grab handles that can be resized though. Anyone care to nominate this as an enhancement?
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by Hagar Delest »

LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by lilleguard »

Is it possible to make this timeline run vertical. Then it wouldn't be necessary to put text in different heights...
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by lilleguard »

I would like to make a "twitter timeline" by rotating this diagram 90 degrees CW and inverting the timeline so that 1800 is on top and 1700 at the bottom (the most recent on top). Could it be done?
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by lilleguard »

Wow! It was fairly easy to do these things myself. Only thing i couldn't do was to rotate the whole diagram, but rotating labels and inverting timeline was easy just by rightclicking x-axis and in the first tab check "Turn direction" (or something like that, I use norwegian openoffice), and then move over to the tab named "Labels" and change text direction to 90. You can do the same with the data labels as well!

But somebody know how to rotate the whole diagram? Or is that impossible?
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Hagar Delest
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by Hagar Delest »

See how is constructed the diagram and adapt the concept to the other direction.
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by lilleguard »

Thanks! Made it by swapping x-values with y-values when i created the scatter plot! Great!
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Re: [Solved] Creating a Timeline with Scatter and data label

Post by Ronin »

...and how to add the duration of an event?
35buk8x.jpg.png
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