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The Graph Tool in Illustrator seems to have been overlooked by Adobe for at least 10 years. You can literally see how old it is compared with the rest of the features of the program as soon as the dull “Excel sheet” appears. It is difficult to understand why there is no such thing as Chart Styles -- that could be applied to a series of charts with next to no effort. Everything would have been so much easier.

How the Graph Tool works

Unfortunately I can not find the source for this, but apparently the utility records all the changes you make to the chart after it's been created, similar to how Actions work. When you make changes to the table data, the chart is redrawn from scratch. Since the tool is so old, it can't handle features from newer versions of Illustrator. In addition, you should preferably use solely Styles to change the look of the chart. If any new feature used, or the wrong methods are used to format the chart, everything will return to it's original, gray and miserable shape.

So, strict discipline is required to create a chart in Illustrator, in which data can be changed without destroying it's look.

What you can do

• All that can be done within the framework of Paragraph Styles, Text Styles and Graphic Styles can be applied to objects in a graph.

• It is possible to scale objects using the Scale Tool, but not by dragging the anchor points.

• It is possible to replace markers and stacks with custom made Chart Symbols.

What you can not do

• You can not change the ratio between the x- and y-axis without making the chart from scratch. (Perhaps the biggest problem with the tool. If anyone knows a way that makes it possible, I would be sick grateful.)

• You can't move objects around, because they will be redrawn at the starting position. Text can be moved by some settings in Paragraph Styles.

• Chart Symbols can't be scaled, or otherwise altered, after they are applied. This is an exception to other items that can be edited by certain methods. Chart symbols must be created at the right size, shape and color from the beginning.

Read more about graphs.