Select the CC Charts tool from the Tools panel (Shortcut key: J).
Creative Cloud Charts (CC Charts) — a new Creative Cloud service — allows designers to create compelling charts and infographics.
Illustrator supports the following types of charts:
Scale by Value chart
You can now use any custom art to represent data values in the chart's design. Users now have unprecedented control and flexibility on chart elements – they can be stylized and treated for visual appeal, to create aesthetic charts, without breaking the link to the underlying data.
Column chart
Represent numerical data with column charts (histograms). From the CC Charts web view, you can edit the data or the layout of the chart.
Here's how a typical workflow looks like:
Editing chart appearance
Change the appearance - customize!
Importing/ Defining chart data
Get your numbers in!
Editing chart data
Make your numbers count!
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Creating a brand new chart
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Creative Cloud Charts web view
All the action happens here!
Modifying chart layout
Move stuff around - customize!
Chart options
Change the layout - customize!
Select the CC Charts tool from the Tools panel (Shortcut key: J).
Click-drag on the artboard to create a chart of the desired size.
If the column chart does not display, use the CC Charts context menu described in the next step to change the chart type to Column Chart.
Click the chart to view the CC Charts context menu.
Use the Charts menu to
When you create a column chart object, to work with the layout of the chart, import or modify data, and more, you must edit the chart online in Creative Cloud.
When you edit a chart on Creative Cloud, in addition to modifying the data and the appearance of the chart, you can perform other actions.
For the column chart, you can change the layout for the:
The options available for each of the parts of the column chart are specific to the section. These options are described in the next section of this article.
Complete chart
(Default) Click anywhere on the column chart
Value (Y) axis:
Click the Y axis. This includes the axis line or on the values displayed on the axis
Category (X) axis:
Click the X axis. This includes the axis line or on the categories displayed on the axis
Chart data:
Click the values of the chart data.
In Illustrator, select a chart, and then do one of the following:
In the browser window that opens, ensure that you are in the Chart tab.
Each chart type contains a number of configurable options. Click the respective chart type tab below.
Click Save to retain any modifications to the layout.
Options to edit the appearance of the chart:
Scaling |
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Stretch artwork |
Option available when Scaling = Stretch-to-fit:
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Layout |
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Direction |
Option available when Layout = Flow:
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Alignment |
Option available when Layout = Flow:
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Spacing |
Option available when Layout = Flow Use the slider to alter the spacing between successive artwork. |
By default, the chart edit options are displayed.
Some options are common to different parts of the column chart. For conciseness, the common options are not repeated.
Chart |
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CATEGORY (X) AXIS |
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VALUE (Y) AXIS |
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To change the Value (Y) or Category (X) axis specific options, click the Y or X axis
Change the scale for the data and gridlines on the Y axis
OVERRIDE SCALE |
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GRIDLINES |
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POSITION |
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POSITION |
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To change the data label options, click a data label in the chart
POSITION |
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Format |
Choose the format of the data labels
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You can change the appearance of the chart. For example, you can change the artwork in Scale by Value charts or the color of bars in Columns charts.
In Illustrator, select a chart.
In your document, draw new artwork, or drop any available artwork on the canvas.
Complex artwork such as objects with a gradient mesh, and raster objects are not supported.
In Illustrator, select a chart, and then click the Direct Selection Tool (A).
Select one or more data representations, and modify the appearance of the objects.
Some complex appearances such as effects, multiple fills, etc. do not appear while editing the chart on Creative Cloud. However, these appearances are preserved inside Illustrator.
You can change the appearance of an entire chart, all the bars on the chart, a bar group, or a single bar. To change the appearance of a specific component of a chart, use the chart selection functionality in column charts.
A column chart contains different levels of selection. Illustrator, provides a drill-down functionality that allows you to successively select charts components at different levels.
For the column chart, the drill-down functionality works for the bars in the chart, the grid lines, and the axis lines.
To drill down the bars in a chart:
To drill down the grid lines:
To drill down an axis:
The chart drill-down functionality allows you to successively drill down the components in the chart. However, to directly select a component at the lowest level, you can use the Direct Selection tool.
To select a single bar, choose the Direct Selection tool (A), and click the bar.
Similarly, to select a single grid or axis line, choose the Direct Selection tool (A), and click the line.
By using the component selection functionality for charts, you can choose to change the appearance specific components of a chart.
To change the color of a group of bars:
Similarly, you can change the colors of the other bar groups. You can also change the appearance of the grid lines.
You can also change the appearance (such as font-family, font-size) of the text on the chart.
Select the entire chart.
To select specific text objects in the chart, you need to use the Direct Selection tool.
When you change data in the Charts tab, remember to click Apply, and then click Save, to ensure that the chart is updated in Illustrator.
In Illustrator, select a chart, and then do one of the following:
In the browser window that opens, click the Data tab.
Click Choose File to import data from a Comma Separated Values (.csv) or Microsoft Excel (.xls or .xlsx) file.
Any data you import will always overwrite existing data already available for the chart.
(Important) From the available rows and columns, click and drag the mouse over the data cells to represent in the chart, and then click Apply ().
The Chart Preview page area is updated with a representation of the values that you have selected for the chart.
Add, modify, and refine your data, and then click Save.
Each time you click Save, the chart is updated in Illustrator.
The speed at which the chart is updated in Illustrator depends on the speed of internet connectivity. This may vary from as little as nearly-immediately to upto 12-15 seconds.
When you change data in the Charts tab, remember to click Apply, and then click Save, to ensure that the chart is updated in Illustrator.
In Illustrator, select a chart, and then do one of the following:
In the browser window that opens, click the Data tab.
Click any cell that contains data, or select a range of cells.
A context-sensitive pin () appears.
In the pin, click the three dots () to see the additional options available with the selected data.
Select an option from the context-menu that appears to insert, delete, or sort cells.
When done, click Apply, and then click Save, to ensure the changes are available inside Illustrator.
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Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CC_Charts_Feedback.
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