Dear all,

Anyone got experience in where or how to get good quality graphs (presentation of data in appealing and clear picture). I have used Excel and SPSS (base) yet find the graphs quite basic. I have in my mind a picture how I want to present my data, but this does not match with the mentioned programmes (or I am too stupid to find out how to create these!)
Is there any programme or institution where you can get these made like you indicate?

What types of graphs are you aiming to produce?

I do basic calculations etc through excel i.e. normalising data percentages etc

but all final data is put into Prism - which is a statistical analysis software. From this programe you can produce a variety of graphs and get all your statistical data

Images of graphs can then be exported as tiffs

there are other stat packages - but I agree, excel has its limits

If you are with a university, chances are they have a department liscence for a statistical analysis package - it would probably be best to ask your supervisor

S

here's a link to Prism

http://www.graphpad.com/prism/Prism.htm

I recommend a textbook: Nicol, A.A.M. and Pexman, P. M. (2003) Displaying your findings - A practical guide for creating figures, posters, and presentation, APA

Matlab has excellent graphs and things!

I will look at these suggestions too. I agree that SPSS graphics are pants.

a thousand words are worth a picture! ( or a graph!)

Thank you all for your replies.

I will have a look at the suggestions.

How is the research going?

just in the last 3-4 weeks of thesis write up - so hopefully all finished ;)

I know a lot of people who swear by r for graphs and datd presentation (another stats package) I've never using it myself but think it is a free download.

Hi Catalinbond,

thanks for your reply. I am note sure that I understand the name of the programme you are suggesting. Is it "r" for graphs and "datd" for presentations? It would be very useful and kind from you if you could let me know.

Kind regards,

Rick

Hi Sjo4,

so you are nearly there? Well done.

I am right in the middle, on one side trying to analyse data that I have got, on the other hand still organising focus groups (not easy!)

Good luck with the final bit

Hi,

'R' is actually a statistical package (free to download) that does produce very good graphs. However, it is command based rather than having a toolbar and takes ages to learn. I have been using R for two years now and still find basic things like labelling a graph really hard on R. Its also difficult to read in data unless you know how.

However, not sure of any other packages that you could try Excel are good but basic. In SPSS you have no control over your graphs.

Thank Sillybilly,

your remark is helpful. If it takes a lot of time to learn to use "R" software it may not be worth the effort.

Today I havew been working on a a table using both SPSS and Excel, looks reasonable (took me several hours though!)


Kind regards

I think that is where packages like prism are best

reasonably simple format - put data in and it automatically produces graphs - you can then change graph type at the click of a button

press 'analyze' and select the type of analysis (e.g. one-way anova) you want and it does it and produces all you tables for you giving you the relevant P values - it even has agood help section if you don't know the types of analysis you want

I find excel - particularly the new one in office 2007 more laborious, however it is still good for calculations

Its worth looking in to as it will eventually save you a lot of time - particularly at the write up stage