Graphs, Charts, Diagrams Software Needed?

[alex1985 0]

I need software that is easy and convenient to use. I'm currently working with my professor under one project specialized in IT Department. So, I need some software that can help me to do diagrams, charts or graphs easily and quickly. If know some, let me know as soon as possible.

[rvalkass 5]

OpenOffice is a free office suite, which includes a program for drawing graphs from tables of data (something similar to Microsoft's Excel). It is completely free and really easy to use.

For your diagrams, I'd go for Inkscape. It is a vector drawing program, meaning you can blow the images you create up to any size you like without losing any quality. Again, totally free and easy to use.

Both also have good help and support docs included, and available online, to help you get started. Inkscape can take a little while to get used to what everything does, but is very powerful once you have spent a few minutes familiarising yourself with everything.

[alex1985 0]

Ok, I need softwares which actually specializes in building diagrams!

[slave 0]

i think Microsoft Office is best of it. cause you can all do such work with it.. i'm doing Master in business. so often i need to make diagrams, charts, and other stuffs for my presentations so i used.MS office it's a prefect software for it. well if you need some other software then go for open office. i never try it. but hear it's good and it's same like MS office . you can go to download.com you might get some other nice software. well i'll suggest you to use MS office. remain it's upto you.

[alex1985 0]

i think Microsoft Office is best of it. cause you can all do such work with it.. i'm doing Master in business. so often i need to make diagrams, charts, and other stuffs for my presentations so i used.MS office it's a prefect software for it. well if you need some other software then go for open office. i never try it. but hear it's good and it's same like MS office . you can go to download.com you might get some other nice software. well i'll suggest you to use MS office. remain it's upto you.

Which software exactly?

[sonesay 7]

Some paper and crayons will do the trick . You said you needed diagrams charts or graphs but if you told us what kind of data you are using for the input it may narrow it down a bit. There are different types of programs for different types of graphs but I think Microsoft suite would probably handle most required graphs and charts. For diagrams you may need a separate program depending on its requirements.

Edited March 21, 2008 by sonesay (see edit history)

[rvalkass 5]

Ok, I need softwares which actually specializes in building diagrams!

Inkscape does specialise in drawing diagrams. I have used it to construct the diagrams used in all of my chemistry and physics work for the past 2 years. From their own website:

An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

 

Illustrator is very popular for making all sorts of diagrams and illustrations, but costs a ridiculous amount of money. Inkscape is a free alternative.

 

If you tell us exactly what you want a diagram of then perhaps we might be able to help you a bit more. Inkscape is a general application, whereas there are plenty of applications designed specifically for certain types of diagrams (such as flow charts, chemical formulae, or pretty much anything else).

 

Which software exactly?

Excel is Microsoft's application for drawing tables, charts and graphs. It is very similar to the Calc application in OpenOffice, but Excel costs money, while Calc is free. Also, in both Excel and Calc you have some limited tools for drawing basic diagrams. However, they were not designed for this (they were designed for number-crunching) so they aren't brilliant for making diagrams.