Exemple de CSV
| Month | Average Rainfall (mm) |
|---|---|
| Jan | 146 |
| Feb | 109 |
| Mar | 97 |
| Apr | 66 |
| May | 44 |
| Jun | 39 |
| Jul | 18 |
| Aug | 25 |
| Sep | 41 |
| Oct | 88 |
| Nov | 158 |
| Dec | 152 |
How to Create a Polar Area Chart
A step by step walkthrough for turning a spreadsheet of cyclical categories into a published polar area chart in PlotSet, from shaping the sheet to adding a scale and exporting the finished rose.
Environ 8 minutesA spreadsheet of months, hours or compass directions is the starting point for how to create a polar area chart in PlotSet, ending with a published circular chart that carries a real scale, not just a decorative rose. Not a screenshot of someone else's rose chart, your own data, run through the same click path a PlotSet chart takes from upload to publish.
If your spreadsheet is already two columns, category and value, in the order you want them to appear around the circle, this takes about eight minutes. Add another five if you're reordering a report that came out sorted by value, or renaming months so they match a calendar year instead of a fiscal one. Budget the eight minutes below and treat the rest as a buffer.
Les données dont vous avez besoin
Two columns, one row per sector, listed in the order you want them to appear around the circle. Category first, number second, one header row. No totals row, no sorting by value.
List categories in the order they should sit around the circle. PlotSet places rows starting near the top and moving clockwise, so a resorted or alphabetized sheet breaks a cycle like the calendar.
Keep the value column free of negative numbers. A polar area chart has no direction below the centre to draw a sector in, so a negative value either gets clipped or throws off the whole scale.
Delete any totals or subtotals row before uploading. A stray "Total" row becomes a sector of its own, usually the longest one, and it wrecks the radial scale for every other category.
Blank cells in the value column render as a zero-length sector rather than being skipped. Fill them in or remove the row before you upload.
Les étapes
Le parcours exact dans PlotSet, d'un modèle vierge à un graphique terminé.
- 01
Start the Polar Area Chart template
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose the Polar Area Chart template (listed as the radial polar bar template in the library). It loads with twelve sample sectors already in place, so you can see the column layout before swapping in your own file.
Chaque guide commence ici. Choisissez la catégorie, puis le modèle : c'est la même grille quel que soit le type de graphique visé. - 02
Shape your sheet into two columns, in cycle order
Category in the first column, its number in the second, one row per sector. Order the rows the way you want them to read around the circle: January through December, midnight through 11pm, or north through northwest. PlotSet plots rows in sheet order; it does not infer a calendar or a clock face for you.
- 03
Upload your file or connect a sheet
Import a CSV or .xlsx file from the data panel, paste rows straight from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet if you want the chart to update later without a re-upload. PlotSet reads the first row as headers automatically.
La vue données, ici sur un projet de graphique en barres. Importez un CSV, extrayez les chiffres d'une image avec 'Magic Import' ou synchronisez une Google Sheet. Le panneau est identique pour tous les types de graphique. - 04
Map the category and value columns
Confirm which column feeds the angular position and which feeds the radius. This is usually automatic when your headers are clear, but worth checking manually if your sheet carries extra columns PlotSet had to guess at.
Les associations déterminent quelle colonne devient l'étiquette, laquelle fournit les valeurs et laquelle pilote la couleur. 'Auto Binding' les devine à partir de vos en-têtes : vérifiez-les plutôt que de les tenir pour acquises. - 05
Leave the sort alone
Unlike a bar chart, resist switching this to sort by value. Sorting breaks the cycle you built into the row order, putting December next to July instead of January. If your categories genuinely have no natural order, a bar chart will serve the comparison better than forcing them into a circle.
- 06
Turn on radial gridlines and label the scale
Add the concentric rings and label at least two of them with real values. Without a visible scale, a reader can see which sector is biggest but has no way to convert a radius into a number, and the chart stops doing a chart's job.
- 07
Style one colour and add sector labels
A single series gets one consistent colour, same reasoning as a bar chart: colour isn't carrying any information here. Turn on labels at the outer edge of each sector so the exact value is readable without measuring against the rings, since the area exaggerates differences more than a straight bar would.
L'onglet 'Preview' pour un graphique Polar Area Chart. Tous les réglages de style se trouvent dans le panneau entouré en rouge : apparence, en-tête, pied de page et les options propres à ce type de graphique, chacun dans un onglet distinct. - 08
Publish, embed or export the finished rose
Publish for a live interactive chart with hover tooltips and a shareable link, grab the embed code to drop it into a page, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF if you need a static image for a deck or report.
Partez du modèle Polar Area Chart avec des données d'exemple déjà chargées, puis remplacez-les par les vôtres.
Ouvrir le modèlePublier, intégrer ou exporter
La dernière ligne droite est la même pour tous les types de graphique : 'Share' transforme le graphique en lien public actif et en code d'intégration, 'Export' l'enregistre sous forme de fichier statique.
Share : lien public et code d'intégration
Activer le code d'intégration et le lien public revient à publier le graphique. Le lien peut être envoyé à qui vous voulez sans risque, et le code d'intégration s'insère dans n'importe quelle page sous la forme d'une iframe qui conserve les infobulles au survol et l'interactivité. Si vous modifiez le graphique par la suite, cliquez sur 'Recreate' pour répercuter ces changements sur le lien comme sur le code.
Export : SVG, PNG ou JPG
Le bouton 'Export' génère une copie statique à la taille dont vous avez besoin. Le SVG reste net à toutes les échelles et peut encore être modifié dans un outil de design ; PNG et JPG sont les choix sûrs pour les présentations et les documents. C'est le multiplicateur d'échelle qui vous donne une image nette sur un écran retina.
Conseils de style pour un Polar Area Chart
Keep it to categories that actually cycle
Months, hours, compass directions, days of the week. If your categories don't have a natural loop, the circle implies a relationship between neighbours that isn't real, and a sorted bar chart will tell the same story more clearly.
Cap it around twelve sectors
Twelve months work well because each label still has room to breathe. Past about a dozen sectors, labels start colliding at the outer edge, and the rose turns into a solid blob near the centre where the radii sit close together.
Start the radius at zero, always
Radius is the encoding here, exactly like a bar's length is the encoding on a bar chart. A truncated scale exaggerates every sector, and since area already grows faster than radius, a non-zero start compounds the distortion instead of fixing anything.
Print the numbers, don't rely on the shape
Because area scales with the square of the radius, two sectors that differ by twenty percent in value can look twice as different by eye. Turn on value labels so the reader isn't left estimating from the picture alone.
Erreurs courantes en créant un Polar Area Chart
The sectors are sorted by value and the cycle is gone
This is usually the sort control defaulting to descending, the same setting that helps a bar chart and ruins a polar area chart. Open the sort setting in the chart settings and switch it back to the sheet's own row order.
The chart looks good but nobody can read a value off it
This means the radial gridlines are off or unlabeled. Turn them on and label at least two rings with real numbers, otherwise the circle is decoration, not a chart.
Labels overlap at the outer edge
Usually too many sectors for the space; past about fifteen categories the labels start colliding no matter how the chart is sized. Group the smallest categories into an "Other" sector, or move to a bar chart if every category needs its own visible label.
En savoir plus sur le Polar Area Chart
Vous n'êtes pas sûr que le Polar Area Chart soit le bon choix ? Découvrez ce que c'est, quand l'utiliser et quand l'éviter.
Polar Area Chart : questions fréquentes
Two columns and one header row: category names in the first column, one number per category in the second, listed in the order you want them to appear around the circle. CSV and .xlsx both work, and a pasted range from any spreadsheet tool is fine too.
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