data visualization: basics

Take a look at your spreadsheet. Notice that the numbers are totals, that categories of crimes are in columns and that the years are labels. But there's a problem here. See it yet?

Sometimes when you upload data, it may be interpreted incorrectly. In our example, the Year labels have been imported as numbers (flush right). We need to change them to text (flush left). This is shown in the image to the right.

1. Shift-select the years from A2 to A11.

2. Click the "123" button

3. Choose "Plain Text" from the drop-down menu. This converts the years (numbers) to labels (text).

Notice that the "Year" labels are converted to text but they are still aligned to the right. We don't have a visual clue that you converted your labels to text.

To avoid converting multiple times, lets align the text to the left. This is shown in the image below.

1. Click on the paragraph button.

2. Choose Flush Left (in the top-left position).

3. Deslect column A by clicking in an empty cell.