2D plots

On the Plots tab, XY Charts has Line (tooltip: Insert line chart), Area (Insert area chart), and Scatter (Insert scatter plot). Bar is in its own group (tooltip: horizontal bar chart, dropdown × variable) — a different region, documented at the bottom of this page.

Place a chart

1. Open the Plots tab and choose Line, Area, or Scatter.
2. Click the page. A plot region appears with the Configure panel open (the canvas is hidden until you close Configure).
3. Fill the top row: Chart title, X axis, Y axis (those words are the placeholders).
4. Bind each series (Sweep, Data, or List — see below).
5. Click the gear (Configure) to hide the panel and show the canvas.
6. Evaluate the sheet (Ctrl+Enter ) so Sweep and List series have values.

Configure panel

The gear on the plot toolbar toggles Configure. While it is open you see:

• Title and axis-label fields on the first row.
• One block per series — colour swatch (tooltip: Series colour), Series name, mode buttons, and the fields for that mode. ✕ (tooltip: Remove) appears when more than one series exists.
• + Add Series — appends another series with its own colour, name, mode, and bindings.

Series modes

Each XY or polar series has three modes. The buttons are Sweep (tooltip: Sweep an input variable), Data (Enter data manually), and List (Link to worksheet variable).

Sweep

Re-evaluates the sheet at each step of an input, then plots the output — the same idea as a sweep table, drawn as a curve.

• Input variable — a name already on the sheet, plus an optional display unit.
• from, to, step — the range. Step must be greater than zero.
• Output variable — the name to read after each re-evaluate, plus an optional display unit.

Define the input and output in math (or a list, or a 2D Frame) above the plot. A typical pair:

L := 6 m =
R := w * L / 2 =

Then Sweep input L from 4 to 12 step 0.5, output R.

Data

Type comma-separated numbers yourself. Placeholders: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for X values and 2, 4, 1, 5, 3 for Y values. The two lists should be the same length; extra values on the longer list are ignored. Use this for a handful of points you do not want as worksheet names.

List

Bind X variable and Y variable to worksheet names that hold arrays — from linspace, range, a matrix column, or a list you built in math. The dropdowns only list names whose current value is an array (placeholder: — none —). A hint under the fields reports a length mismatch if the two arrays differ.

xs := linspace(0, 10, 50) =
ys := sin(xs) =

Several series

+ Add Series for a second curve (for example two outputs against the same sweep input). Each series has its own colour and legend name. Remove extras with ✕. The legend uses the series name field.

Line, Area, Scatter

The plot toolbar tabs are Line, Area, and Scatter. Switching tabs keeps the series bindings. Area fills under the curve; Scatter draws markers only. These tabs stay in the XY family — they do not turn the region into a bar, polar, or 3D plot. Those are separate insert commands.

Pins

Click a point on the chart to drop a value pin (a callout with the series name and coordinates). Click a pin to remove that one. Right-click the plot and choose Remove all pins to clear them. Pins are stored with the region and re-anchor after resize or a re-evaluate when the data still contains that point.

Bar charts

Plots → Bar inserts a horizontal bar chart. It has no Line / Area / Scatter tabs. Configure asks for:

• Dropdown list — pick a List region on the sheet. Each list entry becomes one bar (the entry label is the category).
• Per series: colour, name, and Output variable — a scalar computed from the list’s variables. Add Series to compare two outputs side by side.

Put the list above the formulas that compute the output, and put those formulas above the bar chart. Changing the list selection is not what drives the bars — the chart sweeps every list entry, evaluates the output, and draws one bar per entry.