Idea to improve graphs in illustrator

Here are some of my thoughts from a web designer/developer working for a financial institution.
it should be easier to use illustrator to create dynamic data driven graphs for use in InDesign.
I wish I could point an Illustrator file to an XML or JSON feed/file or XLS.
I wish I could link the data similar to a link in InDesign, and when the data file is updated, the Illustrator graph willl update.
Or, maybe add dynamic data driven graph cpability to InDesign. (I don't mind switching between products, similar to the "Edit in Photoshop option in Dreamweaver)
I wish I could have more control over the axis labeling and formatting and retain all changes when updating the data.
I wish there were other graph options, especially financial type graphs (e.g. candle charts).

Good suggestion. I'll add it for 0.4.

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Idea for improved guides

I think it would be a good idea to improve the guides in Illustrator by optionally create them over the whole workspace (as they work now) or only for the separate print areas.

Thank you, Doug (seems to be an acceptable compromise). But i have to change the tool and to breat my working process for that. What about a shortcut in combination with the rulers to switch between the two modes - or is there already one too?!

How do you change default greyscale colouring of graphs in illustrator CS4

I've been trying to format graphs in illustrator CS4 and can't figure out how to change the defualt colour from Greyscale to be a swatch of my own choice without having to change it manually once the data is entered.
Is there a way of changing the settings? This is driving me nuts!!!

You really can't but you can recolor the chart using a color group you define.
Describing in written words how the recolor art feature works is not practical for me so it is by a movie
http://mysite.verizon.net/wzphoto/recolor.mov
BTW if you want the colors to be the value of one color just make a color group of one color and apply it or choose a one color job from the drop down.
Like this

Import excel graphs into illustrator

When I try to import the graphs from excel into Illustrator the text converts into a gibberish. Is there any proper way to import excel graphs into illustrator?

Obviously it helps if you have got the same fonts in the Excel and the Illie files. But I believe that this is not the whole answer – or at least there is a nice difference between gibberish and utter gibberish.
For example if you try to open a .docx or .xlsx file in TextEdit you will get totally mind-boggling utter gibberish, whereas .doc and .xls files usually behave more or less normally even if there is a font conflict.
Now Auntie Illie is very fussy about her fonts, so do what dandidotcom says first and if you still get utter gibberish even with the right fonts, try downsaving the Excel file to .xls.

Creating graphs in illustrator - from Excel

Currently we're having issues with building graphs in Illustrator CS4. We drag the Excel graph from Excel to illustrator then recreate the graph ie click on the lines - make black, or another colour - fill bar graphs with other colours etc - Apple Mac 10.6.4 the programme keep crashing

Try printing to a PDF and openeing that in Illustrator. You’ll still need to clean up the blacks, but the transfer should be less crash-prone.

Excel 2007 graph into Illustrator CS2

I have discovered an issue with Illustrator CS2 and Excel 2007...when I try to edit a graph in Illustrator (either by cutting and pasting or printing to a pdf and opening in Illustrator), all of the graph lines are no longer lines. They are individual shapes with fills instead of strokes. Does anyone know of a way of fixing this? I edit graphs for a living and this is a tragic discovery! I had no problems with Excel 2003. Would this problem go away if I upgraded to CS3?

Having the same problem with Illustrator CS3. All Excel 3D graph/chart are individual shapes. Looks horrible.
Don't have Office 2003 installed. So sure if it only an Excel 2007 issue.
No problem with Excel 2004 on the Mac.

Idea to improve service warranty - guarantee

Congratulations for the service of guarantee of Lenovo in Spain. Is efficiente and simply,though it depended of the mail
send/system.
I propose create an independent mail/send system of Lenovo and for Lenovo.

Ideas to improve your service warranty/guarantee service might be to join up the last-resort complaint-management team with the ordinary warranty department a little better. I'm currently stuck in the hell between the two with a less-than two month old T450 which has a dicky right hand USB port. I've paid extra for an on-site warranty but when the normal warranty department process stalled (I think because they don't have a replacement motherboard readily available) I was put into the hands of the Bratislava complaint management team and a man who's basic solution to the problem is to take the existing machine away and possibly get me a replacement within 145 days. He doesn't speak English too well and his e-mails are a masterpiece of indistinct meaning. The ordinary warranty department can't deal me now because my complaint has gone to this 'higher' level of resolution and I can't get a straight answer out of Bratislava. This is my third ThinkPad, I still like them, just, but wow this is a super nadir of service for a machine which had a fault on picking it up. When did depriving an owner of his machine for getting on for six months without any kind of recompense ever, ever constitute customer service. Andy English

Snow Leopard Chinese Input System Demo & Request for ideas to improve it

I had been looking for a detailed Snow Leopard Chinese Input System demo online for sometime and failed. What I found were just short video clips of people trying to use the system for a few words here and there, nothing detailed. So I've taken the initiative to create such a video and hope people interested learning more about the Chinese Input System may find it useful.
http://kempton.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/snow-leopard-chinese-input-system-demo/
I like the system and like to see users of the system sending in suggestions to Apple for them to improve it and make the system even better.
Here are some comment/ideas of mine,
1) I love the predictive word association, it has saved me time in entering many words.
2) Add an "undo" to the track pad input.
Sometimes I see the right word predicted but my hand was too fast and I added a dot or stroke that takes out the word I want.
3) My pen stroke order sometimes ***** and this mess up the recognition system badly.
I wonder will it be difficult to implement a display tool that
given a passage of "Chinese text" as input
have the system "display" the "correct" pen strokes order of how the words are expected in the system. The stupidly simple word “生” should not take 20-30 seconds for someone to fight with the system to get the correct recognition.
Here is how I captured some of my thoughts earlier this month in Chinese typing the article in Snow Leopard,
自從九月 [...]，我便開始用Apple Snow Leopard新的中文輸入系統。當時我寫
“打本文某一㘹字時慢到我想死 (一笑)！希望將來我的中文輸入會快一點吧！”
我現在有點經驗使用這中文輸入系統，慢慢開始熟練，寫文章都叫做幾快。以下是我的一些觀察，
1) 輸入系統的”聯想”(predictive word association)有時可以幫我寫小好幾個字。
2) 輸入系統非常依靠正確的筆劃順序。不幸我寫得不太好，所以有時候我要同一字寫多次才成。
3) 冇undo。有時我寫得太快，加多一箑一點，字便變了。冇undo，很不方便。

Make sure you also send your ideas for improvements to Apple via this link:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
(In these forums you are only reaching other users like yourself)

Deserializing obj on network drive take a long time -- any ideas to improve

Good morning!
Deserializing objects from a network drive is taking way too long, much slower than deserializing the same object files stored on the local hard drive of the development PC. How I can reduce the time??
The size of the serialized objects is small (72K and 17K).
The PC access network drives quickly enough (word processing, text editing, etc). The PC JVM is 1.5.0_09 and the OS is Windows XP.
Here is the background.
I had the idea to create objects and serialized them on my server (an AS400) and let client applications deserialize them.
Now that I have it running I find that deserializing the objects off the server take way too long! Does anyone have any ideas how to improve this.
If I copy the serialized objects off the server onto the local hard drive of the development PC and access them from the local hard drive the speed is fine.
To my mind that eliminates the potential for incompatibility between the JVM which serialized the objects and the JVM which descerialized the object. That is, the deserialize fast on the local drive, slow over the network.
Used both UNC and mapped drive to access the server and I can't see any performance difference. That is
filename = "//server/java/ftpaudit/SerializedObject.ser"
and
filename = "J:/ftpaudit/SerializedObject.ser"
where J: is mapped to //server/java
This is the code which deserialize the objects.
try {
     File file = new File(filename);
     FileInputStream f = new FileInputStream(file);
     ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(f);
     Object returnObj = ois.readObject();
     ois.close();
     f.close();
     return returnObj;
} catch (InvalidClassException ice) {
     ....Thank you for your time and help.
BillB

Could the file be locked on the server?I don't believe it is. It eventually (minutes loads). The delay is consistent. I haven't put the logging to see what part of the deserialize method is chewing up the time yet.
Putting in code to copy the file from the server to the local hard drive then deserializing performs much, much faster (milliseconds, almost as fast as deserializing directly from the local drive).
I modified this from another post to this forum
try {
        FileChannel srcChannel = new FileInputStream(file).getChannel();
        FileChannel dstChannel = new FileOutputStream(dir+file).getChannel();
        dstChannel.transferFrom(srcChannel, 0, srcChannel.size());
        srcChannel.close();
        dstChannel.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }I was wondering if there was a more efficient way to deserialize an object than the one in my original post. Or if there were hidden aspects to consider such as buffer size.
Here's an alternative approach: since the server side
is written in Java (I'm assuming, since you say that
it writes a file containing serialized data), why not
create an RMI interface for retrieving the
information? The current approach, of opening a file
over the network, is very fragile -- what happens in
the network mount point or share name changes?Thank you. Good suggestion.

Ideas to Improve Tagging of photos in PSE Organizer

I've been using PSE since V2 and recently upgraded from PSE 11 to PSE 13. While PSE is solid and has some nice new features, it's apparent after some use that my hopes that manual face tagging would be greatly improved were not realized. I take some responsibility for this as I've grumbled about the unnecessary steps and lack of features in this area and have been silent. So, I have some suggestions which would be really, really nice to see in an update to the Photoshop Elements Organizer.
The thrust of this posting is to improve manual tagging of pictures: Steps one does to augment tagging after "Add People" and "Add Places" has been used.
Please let me know what you think of this list and I'll submit a revised version as a development suggestion. Which ideas are good? workable? Which ones are half baked? Have I missed features that already exist so these suggestions are unnecessary?
Recently Used tags:
When tagging a set of pictures it is highly likely to reuse tags across many pictures.
If the tags are from many areas in the tag group structure it requires opening and closing parts of the group tree to access the tags. This is arduous if one has a large number of tags.
Recommend providing a "Recently Used Tags" in the list of tag sections below Keywords, People, Places, and Events.
Recently used tags should provide a lot of tags in Most Recently Used order - 100 at a minimum. Tagging weddings and other group events involve using a lot of tags.
Recently used tags should include all types of tags - people, places, events, etc.
This approach would be beneficial when PSE fails to find faces as well as when non-face tags need to be applied to pictures.
Favorite tags:
Add a "Favorites" tag structure along with People, Places, Events, and Recently Used from above.
Allow tags to be assigned to favorites by selecting a tag and right click "Add to Favorites".
Allow tags in Favorites to be reordered by dragging up and down in the list.
Allow tags to be removed from Favorites by selecting the tag with right click "Remove from Favorites".
Adding face tags for faces that were not found (no box on the face) requires way too many steps for a picture selected in the organizer (seven steps). Today one must:
Press "Mark Face" button.
Drag rectangle placed in upper left to a face.
Size rectangle to the face.
Click in name area below rectangle.
Type beginning of name.
Select name from list
Click green check to confirm selected name.
First suggested alternative for face tagging (3 steps):
Right (or left) click and drag to create rectangle on face - Organizer recognizes this operation and marks face and opens name box below.
Type beginning of name in name box.
Select name from list. When name is selected it is confirmed - no green check to confirm selected name. In the unlikely event one incorrectly selects a name it can always be corrected or the face box removed.
Second suggested approach to quick face tagging:
Open one Tags/Info and expand one of the tag structures: People, Places, Events, Recently Used tags, or Favorites and navigate to a tag.
Drag a tag (that is a person) into a unassigned facial recognition box. This completes the face tag.
If no box exists for a face, right click and drag a tag to a face. The default sized square is created on center of release point at end of drag and the tag is assigned to the face. Allow the user to resize the square to margins of face and hit enter to complete tag. Using right click for this process differentiates a new face tag from the standard left click which assigns the tag to the photo or an empty face tag box.
This approach requires one or two steps per tag unless the tag needs to be located in the tag strucure.
Other photo tagging issues:
Do not suggest a person for a face tag if they are already face tagged on the picture as they probably aren't in two places on the same picture.
When clicking on a blank name for an empty face tag PSE provides a list of names that is barely wide enough for 3 names. A larger list of suggested names should be provided - it could extend beyond the entry area for the name and below it. If face recognition does find a good match PSE should include in the list any people tags which are assigned to the photo but have not been tagged to a face. Anyone having used PSE for a long period of time likely has many pictures which are tagged with people but are not face tagged. This approach would reduce the effort in selecting a person.
Sometimes a lot of non-faces are detected in a picture. Removing these boxes requires separate clicks on each box's 'X'. Suggest a context menu on the photo, 'Remove unused face tags' to clear them' in one step.
I'd appreciate all ideas and suggestions. In advance, thanks!

You should see it bottom left of Organizer.

Multiple symbols for line graph in illustrator

I can't figure out how to change the default square data points in a line graph. When I try to got to Object>Graph>Marker it is greyed out. When I click on a circle symbol and then try to go to Object>Graph>Design, it is greyed out. I am so frustrated trying to do the simplest things in this program. The online tutorials on how to make graphs do not seem to explain the simplest of tasks, only the difficult. Thanks for any help!

Skeptic,
Yes, it's cumbesome, but it's described in Online Help (at least in CS3 and prior):
Draw whatever you want to use for the marker. (It can be a Symbol; doesn't matter.)
Draw a rectangle and send it behind the marker artwork. For a marker on a line chart, the size of the rectangle relative to the marker art defines the scale.So the rectangle can be smaller than the artwork to make the artwork larger, as shown above. The rectangle can be unstroked, unfilled so it doesn't show.
Select both the artwork and the rectangle. Group. Leave it selected.
Object>Graph>Design. In the dialog, click New Design. Click OK.
Black pointer: Select the graph. Object>Graph>Marker. In the dialog, select the Design you just created. Or...
White pointer: AltClick a single marker in the Graph. AltClick it again to "select up" (Illustrator's upside-down selection scheme) to the parent group. AltClick again to include the legend marker. Object>Graph>Marker. In the dialog, select the Design. This way, you can assign different markers to the various lines in the line graph if you want.
JET

Question about the Cluster and Column width in Graphs in Illustrator CS2

How do they relate to each other? How do the Percentages work together? Is there any information about how you can mathematically figure how much area each Cluster width takes. If you make a graph and make both the cluster and column widths 100%, the entire area is filled. If you make the Column width 50% the bar will sit exactly in the center of the Cluster width, but if you make the cluster width 75%, the bars move closer together.

Gregg,
The set of bars that represent each row of data in the graph spreadsheet is called a "cluster".
Let's let
   W = the width of the whole area inside the graph axes
   R = the number of rows of data
   C = the number of columns of data
Then the maximum potential space to use for each row of data is W/R. The cluster width controls how much of this potential space is assigned to each row. This cluster space is then divided by C, giving the maximum potential width of each bar. The maximum potential width for each bar is then multiplied by the column width percentage to get the actual width of each bar.
So the actual width of each bar is ((W/R)*Cluster width)/C)*Column width
The graphs illustrated below have three rows of data, with two columns each. The solid colored areas in the background have the same cluster width as the main graph, but they all have a column width of 100%. This lets you see more easily how the gradient bars that have a column width of 80% are using up 80% of their potential width.
Notice that as the Cluster percentage gets lower, the group of bars that represent a row of data get farther apart, so that you can more easily see the "clumping" of rows. When the Cluster percentage is 100%, the columns within each row are no closer to each other than they are to the columns in other rows.
As the Column percentage gets lower, the bars for each data value occupy less of the space within their row's cluster, so that spaces appear between every bar, even in the same row.

Bar Graphs in Illustrator with Numbers within the bars

Does anyone know if an easy way to add the numbers/values into each bar in a bar graph and have them appear automatically when importing data from excel? I'm working w Illustrator CC.
HELP! I'm doing 100 graphs and need to find an easy solution.
Thanks.

You need to create your own custom graph design for this:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS3f28b00cc50711d9fc86fa8133b3ce158e-8000 .html#WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-61a3a

Modify .wmf graph in illustrator (make it look nice)

I'm a newbie, just trying to figure out how to edit a .wmf file that is a graph and was generated by a statistical program. I need to visually enhance this graph, making it look more appealing for publication in a manuscript. It's very simple, just need to make rectangles behind the existing text that form the columns in the graph, and shade the rows of the graph to assist the reader to follow the row across the graph. While I can edit the text on the .wmf, I can't get a rectangle to be placed under the existing text unless I lower the opacity of the rectangle which won't work as I need black and white only. I've tried converting the text to rectangle, but the stretching of the text won't be acceptable. What would be the workflow I should attempt to follow to enhance the looks of the document in illustrator? Is there a trick to getting the rectangle to behave? It works just fine if I actually type NEW text in, then place a rectangle, but I'll have to work with the info in the .wmf file - can't re-type it all.

Thank you for your feedback. I am able to open the .wmf file and do things to pretty it up such as change font size, color, move things around, delete lines and other random things. What I really want to be able to do is to take the title of a graph column and put a black rectangle behind the white column title text. When I do this the black rectangle is the only thing that is visible, so I then send it "back", but then I can't see the black rectangle at all. I've set the text forward as well. The only way I've figured a way around this is to create the black rectangle, but then change the opacity to 40% so that the text will show through. This is not acceptable as the requirements for the project demands the titles of the graph be blocked black with white text. I'm not sure how AI translates the .wmf file into AI. It does not appear to be a true text type object, although I can modify font size and font color. I've also tried changing text to rectangle, however this stretches/shrinks the text based on the size of the rectangle. I need a fixed font and fixed size rectangle. Maybe this is a very simple fix, and I've over-complicated it. fingers are crossed that there is a magic fix
I'm on PC. I would insert an image showing what the file looks like raw, then the after edit (done by someone who knows how), but I can't figure out the upload. grr.
Thank you!

Which is a better idea to improve my credit score

I am trying to rebuild my credit from years of neglect and stupidity as of now I have a 521 through equifax but a 601 through trans union (no idea how the big difference is posible but that's a different matter) most of the reson it's so low is a very poor payment history. I am now on track with all my bills that aren't in either charge off status or collection and only have one 1 more collection to take care of. And one care off( thinking of trying to do a debit consolidation loan for that thoughts?) But 2nd and main question is which is better to pay down a current revolving debt, pay off an installment loan or get a secure cc to increase my available ratio/ usage ? Thoughts please this journey is just beginning

Thank you for your responce and recomendation Below I will itemize my credit report, I just pulled m free anual report. I will also list the current actions that I am curently taking on each account and see what you all recommend. Thank you again Good reports Navy fedral auto loan Balance $8394 open Feb 2013 reports monthly total of three 30 day late payments back in jun, sep, and oct of 2013 since then payed on time Personal credit plan instalment loan balance $324 reports only pays as agreed nothing else no monthly payment history Military star card revolving credit balance $1,456/1,775 Reports as pays as agreed but is listed as potentialy negative due to 3 30 day late payment 3 60 day late payment I am disputing 5 of the late payments because after the 1st one it began paying automaticaly our of my paycheck Chase Card-- This one I am confused about I was an authorized user for a while on someone elses account and it went well but this just has date reported 2008 pays as agrees Les schwab revolving reports as open but no credit limit and last reported 6-2007 DSHS support enforcmenttype: open pays as agrees 2 120 day late report back FEB 2009 and DEC 2008 but they only report every other month Closed acounts several installment accounts that were paid and they closed when they were paid offexcept these Pioneer/mac instalment loan Status Charge Off Balance $5 353 CO since Nov of 14 oct 180dl sep 150 DL aug 120 DL jul 90 DL Jun 60 DL may- Jan 2014 30 DL which isnt correct. USA discounters installment account CO since nov of 2012 late since nov of 2011 but NR from the open of the account in jun 2010 untl the late report in nov 2011 --- This one I am fully disputing I payed this off early and the decided that After I payed it off they were still going to charge me the intrest that would have accumulated on the account if paid as planed despite their contract having no early pay off penelties. Midland creditwas a colection account that I paid of jan 2013 Navy fedral revolving" Balance $5642/ closed for change of intrest rate from 17.99% down to 6% several 30 date late payment last one dec of 14 Collections Stellar recover: random $696 from century link. --Disputing this as not my account as i havent had century link. a medical bill for $43 trying to investigate this one CBE group for $903 for a direct tv bill-- Disputing and trying to validate I had D-tv but cancled it correctly and dont know why this exist Credit managment paid collection in 2-2014 OK so that is my god awful report. A few courses of action that I am curnently look at. Debt conslidation loan at least for the pioner loan and try a PTRto improve my score which If I understand correctly is 521 ( reported from a lender)Also 2 other things Im milling aroundoption A - scrape up $300 some how and get a secure CC and use it for something small everymonth but paying it offoption B - taking that same $300 and pay down the military star card to improve my ratioWhat say you all ?? Thanks and sorry for the horible and long winded post

Idea to improve graphs in illustrator

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