Excel chart in InDesign (Win)

[Julian Littlewood]

What is considered the best (in print quality terms, then convenience) way of getting Excel charts into InDesign? At the moment I'm printing from Excel to PDF then placing the PDF in InDesign. As far as I can work out there's no direct Excel vector export, and cutting/pasting doesn't seem to work.

Thanks!

Julz

[maxdunn]

Are you set on Excel? I've found it best to automate the creation of the Charts in Illustrator (if you need a charting tool) or directly in InDesign (by scripting), and leave Excel to data manipulation.

Microsoft doesn't seem to understand vector graphics.

[Ian A. Wright]

Julz:

I recommend EPS -- as long as you have a PostScript printer. To get there you can copy the Excel chart into Illustrator or CorelDRAW! and fix it up. Then Export as EPS and Place into InDesign. Another solid strategy if you don't have a PS printer is to create a TIFF using either of the above or PhotoShop. Be sure to create it at the final design size and don't stretch it.

[Julian Littlewood]

I'm afraid I am stuck with Excel - because I've already got a truckload of fairly elaborate Excel graphs on my hands. I'm having problems getting Excel graphs into CorelDraw (which consistently crashes...), but I'm sure that's the way to go. Thanks!

[Bob Levine]

One note, Excel pie charts are really lousy and they look even worse in
Corel Draw or Illustrator where you can see just how jaggy they are.
PowerPoint does a much better job.

Bob

[Jerry Mayeroff]

I've had great success with the method Ian mentions above.

Remember you have to paste the chart into a new blank document in Illustrator. You can then ungroup, release clipping path, recolor, and play around with it any way you like (or not). Then save as an illustrator EPS and place in ID.

Professionally printed fact sheets, etc. separate out just fine.

Jerry

[Guy Smiley]

If you make a lot of graphs, I recommed Microcal Origin. <http://www.originlab.com>

[bluesbr...@gmail.com]

Anyone have any more suggestions on this? I'm trying to automate 50-100 charts but all i see is pp/excel ---> pdf ----> Illustrator ----> ID

I don't care what format but is there a way to automate charts in ID?

I can create csv or tab deliminated as inputs if necessary.

[Helpful Harry]

In article <e74d74a2-dfe2-4884...@googlegroups.com>,

I don't know an easy way to import Excel charts, but why are you going via
Illustrator? InDesign can import PDFs directly.

You could try these links from Google:

Getting a chart from Excel to InDesign - YouTube
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyBNpBbMcI0>

Import Excel data, charts, graphs | InDesign 2.x, CS, CS2
<http://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/import-excel-data-charts-graphs.html>

Charts & Graphics from MS Office to InDesign � Creative Progression

<http://www.creativeprogression.com/charts-graphics-from-ms-office-to-indesign/>

Helpful Harry :o)

[bluesbr...@gmail.com]

Thank you Harry for the information. The pdf is for Vectors which allow for very high resolution. I'm not sure why illustrator before ID. It's just what i've seen people do, such as the youtube link. I'm going to try that and see if it's still vector.

I'm not tied to excel so the chart we used up to this point were created in illustrator. I need to mimick them as much as possible. I'll try the pdf to ID option as well if I can get the Excel graph to look right.

[Helpful Harry]

In article <27499df1-fa8a-4d5f...@googlegroups.com>,

bluesbr...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 16, 2013 6:25:51 PM UTC-6, Helpful Harry wrote:
> > In article <e74d74a2-dfe2-4884...@googlegroups.com>,
> > bluesbr...@gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > > Anyone have any more suggestions on this? I'm trying to automate 50-100
> > > charts but all i see is pp/excel ---> pdf ----> Illustrator ----> ID
> > >
> > > I don't care what format but is there a way to automate charts in ID?
> > > I can create csv or tab deliminated as inputs if necessary.
> >
> > I don't know an easy way to import Excel charts, but why are you going
> > via Illustrator? InDesign can import PDFs directly.
> >
> > You could try these links from Google:
> >
> > Getting a chart from Excel to InDesign - YouTube

> > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DtyBNpBbMcI0>

> >
> > Import Excel data, charts, graphs | InDesign 2.x, CS, CS2

> > <http://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/import-excel-data-charts-graphs.ht=
> ml>=20
> >
> > Charts & Graphics from MS Office to InDesign =BB Creative Progression
> > <http://www.creativeprogression.com/charts-graphics-from-ms-office-to-ind=
> esign/>

>
> Thank you Harry for the information. The pdf is for Vectors which allow
> for very high resolution.

Creating a PDF may not mean you get vector graphics - it depends on the
application being used and the software used to create the PDF. For
example, on my old computer here, using Mac OS X's built-in "print to PDF"
converts anything more difficult than standard text into bitmap imagery.
:o(

> I'm not sure why illustrator before ID. It's just what i've seen people
> do, such as the youtube link. I'm going to try that and see if it's still
> vector.

Just opening the PDF into Ilustrator and re-saving it won't do anything to
change bitmap images to vector images, nor the other way around. In fact
it won't do anything useful (other than perhaps remove some excess
Microsoft created garbage in the document), which is why it's just a
wasted step as far as I can see.

The exception could be if you're using Illustrator to convert the Excel
PDFs into CMYK colours for proper printing, but even then InDesign has the
oiption of converting images when creating the final PDF (although I
haven't checked to see if that includes imported PDFs).

The only other reason I can think of for opening the PDFs in Illustrator
is if you need to make some editing tweaks (e.g. adjusting the colours
from Excel into corporate specific colours).

> I'm not tied to excel so the chart we used up to this point were created in
> illustrator. I need to mimick them as much as possible. I'll try the pdf
> to ID option as well if I can get the Excel graph to look right.

Creating the charts in Illustrator is probably a better idea. For simple
bar / column charts I just create them directly in InDesign itself. Once
I've created one I can group all the elements, and then copy / paste it
where ever I need another bar / column chart and simply alter the length
of the bars / columns or height of the columns. Of course, this isn't
"live" data which automatically updates, but then neither are charts from
Excel or illustrator.

Using Excel (or Apple's Numbers on a Mac) does make making charts easier
... although the newer versions of Excel actually make it more difficult
than it used to be. :o(

There is evidently a plug-in for InDesign to create charts, but it's aimed
at professional print / design companies and costs a whopping US$3,000!!

If you're only needing fairly simple pie charts, then there is this free
plug-in for InDesign CS4 or CS5.
<http://www.indiscripts.com/post/2010/06/claquos2-pie-chart-builder-for-indesign>


Helpful Harry :o)

[bluesbr...@gmail.com]

Thanks again. I understand where you're coming from with the skipping of illustrator. Even with the colors, I can make swatched in ID. We've never used excel or powerpoint to feed our ID project charts before so i'm not sure if I can recreate the charts I need to. I think I can and then use the swatches to get teh color right. Can you specify the $3k tool? or send me the information for it? If it populates precreated charts, then it would be worth it for us to purchase.

[Helpful Harry]

In article <2c906808-348a-4aac...@googlegroups.com>,

bluesbr...@gmail.com wrote:

> On Thursday, January 17, 2013 2:25:44 PM UTC-6, Helpful Harry wrote:
> > In article <27499df1-fa8a-4d5f...@googlegroups.com>,
> >

> > There is evidently a plug-in for InDesign to create charts, but it's
> > aimed at professional print / design companies and costs a whopping
> > US$3,000!!
>

> Thanks again. I understand where you're coming from with the skipping of
> illustrator. Even with the colors, I can make swatched in ID.

You can't change the colours of an imported chart that in InDesign. You
would have to go back to Excel or Illustrator and then create a new PDF,
which InDesign would automatically re-link to.

> We've never used excel or powerpoint to feed our ID project charts
> before so i'm not sure if I can recreate the charts I need to. I think
> I can and then use the swatches to get teh color right.

If you're recreating the charts in InDesign you can use any colour from
the Swatch Palette. I don't know how easy it is to recreate pie charts in
the newer versions of InDesign, but other types are easy, if fiddly, to
do. Of course they are manually created, so don't use the source data.

> Can you specify the $3k tool? or send me the information for it? If it
> populates precreated charts, then it would be worth it for us to purchase.

I don't know much about it (it turned up in a quick Google search), but
the US$3000 software is called uChart by XMPie. It does bar charts, area
charts and line charts, as well as pie charts, using dynamic data from
other files (not sure if those are Excel or plain text). The website is
<http://www.xmpie.com/uchart>. I've had a quick look and it appears to be
one of the modules in a larger piece of software available for Mac and PC,
which explains why it costs so much.

Helpful Harry :o)

[bluesbr...@gmail.com]

Thanks Harry,you've been great. I'm going to test the excel-illustrator-id out and see if it works for us. I think that it's possible adobe isn't the right solution for us. I'll look at other publication applications aimed at business and see what they can do.

I have been in contact with XMPie and Chartbot. XMPie actually uses Chartbot. Chartbot doesn't do it themselves and do not have plans for linking functionality. XMPie told us to purchase the full 1v1 Marketing Solution for $15k to get the uChart. There has to be a software vendor that can do this for less than that.

[Helpful Harry]

In article <2d78a168-c6e7-410f...@googlegroups.com>,

bluesbr...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thanks Harry,you've been great. I'm going to test the excel-illustrator-id
> out and see if it works for us. I think that it's possible adobe isn't the
> right solution for us. I'll look at other publication applications aimed
> at business and see what they can do.
>
> I have been in contact with XMPie and Chartbot. XMPie actually uses
> Chartbot. Chartbot doesn't do it themselves and do not have plans for
> linking functionality. XMPie told us to purchase the full 1v1 Marketing
> Solution for $15k to get the uChart. There has to be a software vendor
> that can do this for less than that.

I did find this Podcast page:
http://indesignsecrets.com/indesignsecrets-podcast-173.php

and there's a few links from the Podcast for pie charts, line charts, etc.
further down the page, but they're probably too simple for what you need.


The charting functions in Illustrator are very good, although tricker to
find and use than in Excel.

Helpful Harry :o)