# iWork Numbers help



## Curlyjones (Jan 21, 2008)

Hey i just got iWork today and i'm trying to make comparitive graphs of the average temperature and precipitation values of two seperate cities using Numbers. I need to be able to show the two values in the same graph, however the temperature needs to be shown in the graph as a line well the precipitation needs to be displayed as bars. So far for the life of me i can't figure out how to get a combination bar and line graph like this, its seems like it should be a relatively simple thing to do but its got me stumped...help!


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## switch (Mar 17, 2004)

As far as I can see, I don't think Numbers allows you to make combo graphs like you are looking for. It looks like you can only make the ones that they give you. Hmm... does seem kind of a basic thing they overlooked.


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## Megs_29 (Sep 25, 2007)

Cant you do this in pages? You can make a chart and input the data for both growths and choose the type of graph that shows it as a line.. so it should show both values at the same time. Does that make sense? The right words are escaping me!


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

Couldn't you superimpose two graphs, one on top of the other? Just make the one on top have a transparent background, and hide the gridlines and labels. It requires some manual work, and isn't great if you're constantly changing the graph's sample size, but will do if you're just looking to make a chart for presentation purposes.

I did a test and got this:


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## Curlyjones (Jan 21, 2008)

Thanks that manual method will work well, extra work and its a silly thing it seems they've overlooked, but that example chart you made is what i'm looking to create so that method will work! Thanks for the advise!


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

Curlyjones said:


> Thanks that manual method will work well, extra work and its a silly thing it seems they've overlooked, but that example chart you made is what i'm looking to create so that method will work! Thanks for the advise!


You're welcome. By the way, in case you didn't notice, I added a blank row at the beginning and end of the line chart data because line charts start at the edge of the chart because they are points with no 'width', wheras bars have a width. If you don't add the extra blank data points, the first and last bar will hang over the edges of the line chart.

Come to think of it, if you made the line chart the transparent one with all the elements hidden, this wouldn't be a problem and you wouldn't need the blank data points.


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## Curlyjones (Jan 21, 2008)

Ummm now i don't really know how to make the cahrt background transparent...


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

Curlyjones said:


> Ummm now i don't really know how to make the cahrt background transparent...


Select the chart, then click on the background. Bring up the Colors panel by clicking the Colors button in the toolbar and set the Opacity slider all the way to 0%. The colour will appear half black (or whatever colour was selected) and half white, divided diagonally. Drag this box to the element you want to make invisible, such as the background of the chart, or the bottom frame, etc. to apply the colour.

Some items like labels and gridlines you disable from the Inspector.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Reading the help file on charts gives me the impression that you CAN DO what Curlyjones wants to do. You define the first city's data as a DATA SET and the second city's info as another data set. If you did that:
"the chart would contain two groups of bars, one for Region 1 and one for Region 2."

To be fair, Numbers is a 1.0 release so feel VERY free to click on "Provide Numbers Feedback" in the application menu and tell the team you need this to be easier. At this stage in their development they LOVE hearing from users!


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