DataGraph Forums › General › Getting Started › formatting second Y-axis with custom source
@kirkt: Thanks for sticking with me Kirk, I got this to work yay!
I am still messing around with the legend (find it odd that it cannot seem to refer to the colors used by the plot and need to set this up manually) but know how to solve that with a bit of labor.
This is day 3 of my eval period. I re-created this plot just as an exercise to figure out how well this package works. On the one hand I am attracted to the capabilities, on the other I must admit that this is just WAY too difficult to solve this fairly benign axis problem. The software looks purposeful and well developed but seems to throw up needless barriers. And although trend, bars, pie, box, histogram are the most common plots, these are not the only plot types needed – I see no way to add ones own plot definitions, no idea if the development roadmap includes more modern plot types… No multi-monitor support (cannot float the sub windows and move them around)…. hmm
Why do many of us first grab Excel/Numbers? Because it quickly visualizes data and “you get something going”. The problem with Excel/Numbers is that you typically get stuck with them in the end particularly if you end up in expression-zoo. Going the R route isn’t appetizing when ones head is still in the “don’t exactly know what/how to visualize things” stage. I had hoped that DataGraph fits right in that in between area but I need to think too much how it works and the software doesn’t quite guide you in the right direction.
Perhaps I should recreate some more plots (in the few more days of eval time) now that I have a bit more experience with the software to see if it rolls more naturally now – so far undecided/leaning towards a no.
Thanks for your detailed help!
I’m glad you got it working! Odd about the legend, it should populate automatically, as it did in my example with 6 litters.
The one thing I will say is that DataGraph takes a little bit of time to understand the commands and the approach to building a plot. The level of abstraction and tokenization is very powerful but not so intuitively obvious at first glance. It is also useful as a visualizer and analytical tool for performing a variety of calculations, fits, processing, etc. and integrates with R dynamically.
Absolutely go through the exercise of recreating plots, and also take a look at all of the example .dgraph files that are part of the startup dialog. There are also helpful webinar series on YouTube that cover various concepts – I always learn something from them, regardless of how much I think I have figured out.
But more than all of that is the fact that, unlike Numbers or Excel, the devs are responsive and willing to listen and implement suggestions, features, additions, etc. Drop them a line with your current concerns and see what they say!
Kirk
@kirkt – Thanks for adding your perspective!
@jib – Feel free to send your file to us directly via email if you want advice on the legend. No reason you should have to do this manually so not sure what is happening here. You can think of DataGraph as having building blocks that can be used in various ways to build a wide variety of graphs. So there can be a way to do things manually, but often there is a faster option that we are happy to guide you toward. In case you have not seen, you can access our help e-mail from the menu Help > Ask Question via email.
The first two playlists on our YouTube channel are especially helpful for new users:
https://www.youtube.com/DataGraph
DataGraph Forums › General › Getting Started › formatting second Y-axis with custom source