Argh. I’ve just spent AGES trying to figure this one out, searching the web, and have finally sorted the one TINY little think that was causing everything not to work. Forgive the keyword spam at the end of the entry – but hopefully Google et al will pick them up and others might not have such a nightmare.
To create a sliding column chart in Illustrator with values:
1. Create your design. No values yet
2. Draw a line with the pen tool through the point you want to slide
3. Select the line, and choose View > Guides > Make guide
4. Make sure that View > Guides > Lock guides isn’t checked.
5. Draw a bounding rectange for your design. Anything within this area will count as part of the column. Imagine a boring column from a bar graph. Anything within the bounding rectange will be included within the area of the column. Anything outside the bounding rectangle DOESN’T count, and will stick out.
6. Send the bounding rectange to the back (ctrl-alt-[ on PC). Also make sure that it has no fill or stroke.
7. With the text tool, click once and enter %00 as the text. Format to suit. Use styles. The “%” tells illustrator to insert the value. The first 0 can be any number from 0-9, and indicates number of digits before the decimal point. 0 = as many as necessary. The second 0 is the number of digits *after* the decimal point. 0 = 0, in this case.
8. Select the lot, and go to Object > Graph > Design… and make a new design.
To apply it, select the columns within the graph you want to apply a design to, and go to Object > Graph > Column. Make sure, in this instance, you select “sliding” as the type.
Phew. I’d forgotten about sending the bounding rectangle to the back, so no matter what I did, the value was being included as part of the design, and counting as part of the “column”.
Keyword attack: Illustrator chart values, Illustrator sliding column values, Illustrator sliding chart values, Illustrator sliding graph values.