In my last post I criticized a figure showing Facebook valuations over time. Although I received a number of comments, they were by email and tweets rather than the comment section of this blog.

A new study suggests that the format in which graphs are presented may be biasing people into being too optimistic or pessimistic about the trends the graphs display. Academics found that when people ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I help people communicate data clearly with graphs. Why am I saying that the Fox News’ graph requires a zero baseline but the Huff ...

Bar graphs seem like one of the simplest ways to represent data. Many people assume that the longer the bar, the bigger the number it represents. Sometimes bar graphs represent an average not a total ...

Microsoft Excel can present two series of data points together on the horizontal axis, but if the number scale for each series dramatically differs, the data will not be readable. Using a two-sided ...

If you need a line chart, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 can help you plot your line graph on any of the slides that make up your presentation. You can select the type of line graph and then insert the ...