Back again to voice my vote on the need for Illustrator to provide charting tools.

The best case scenario, from my perspective, is to do both, continue developing Data Illustrator and also update the basic tools in Illustrator.

In Illustrator proper, we NEED to create basic charts using industry standard ways to deal with data, e.g., working with data as it is typically found— in csv, spreadsheets, xml, JSON, etc. From that, we need to create the standard charts and graphs in Illustrator.

A typical workflow is to start in Excel or R studio, generate a chart and bring it into Illustrator. It would be great to be able to stay in Illustrator to do the basics.

Then, Data Illustrator becomes the opportunity to truly innovate visualizing data. While exciting, we need to have the basics first.

Happy to chat about this any time.
Thanks!

This is frustrating, frustrating, frustrating.

Interesting Update: In Nicolas's other thread, user Richard de Garis had this to say:

Richard de Garis commented · May 9, 2019 4:33 AM

It appears that Adobe are researching a radical overhaul of charting through www.data-illustrator.com.
But there is a woeful lack of update communications. In this time of open communication, public beta testing, public road maps, etc. it seems like Adobe are playing it cool with super-secrecy.
I think the Illustrator faithful deserve some news on this topic from Adobe.
BTW, Microsoft are researching charting with www.charticulator.com. I really hope we get something to work with in the next Illustrator update.

Oh my god thank you so much for sharing this Richard, something like this would have been great to hear from Adobe.

This particular forum has been going for years with no comeback at all.
The graphing tool is WAY out of date. Adobe is showing no signs whatsoever of doing anything about it.
There seems little point in commenting any further unless we get some positive input or response form Adobe.

It appears that Adobe are researching a radical overhaul of charting through www.data-illustrator.com.
But there is a woeful lack of update communications. In this time of open communication, public beta testing, public road maps, etc. it seems like Adobe are playing it cool with super-secrecy.
I think the Illustrator faithful deserve some news on this topic from Adobe.
BTW, Microsoft are researching charting with www.charticulator.com. I really hope we get something to work with in the next Illustrator update.

100%

This stupid tool is an embarrassment. It hasn't been updated in 20 years. That's ridiculous.

Having just produced a 200pp report with nearly 100 charts in three days, I couldn't agree more.

The charting in illustrator is just about useable for the most basic of charts, which isn't much of a boast.

There is a need for a product to make these jobs easier; one that understands excel, and CMYK.

in a world of infographics and data visualisation, this is so overdue and frustrating!

Couldn't agree more.

A lot of people are still frustrated by this, and it seems that the request somehow fell through the cracks and Adobe is unaware of it (or they just couldn't be bothered). Either way, I have posted a link to this thread as a bug report now, to bring it under their attention again. I have wasted 30 minutes now trying to communicate with the chat line to get contact details of someone at product dev whom I can speak to, but to no avail.
I find the Adobe support experience to be way more embarrassing even than their rubbish graphing tool.
(Here is the link to the bug report I posted, if anyone wants to comment there or vote it up: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-bugs/suggestions/37587976-no-response-from-adobe-on-uservoice)

There seems to be a lot of disappointment and frustration with the rubbish graphing/charting tool in Illustrator. There is a feature request with quite a lot of user activity, but the last time anyone from Adobe commented was Oct 2017. The graphing tool is so substandard that I think it goes beyond just a "nice to have feature", and is, in fact, a bug. So either Adobe is unaware of the issue because somehow the feature request fell through the cracks, or they are purposefully ignoring user input.

(https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests/suggestions/31150012-improve-graph-chart-tool?page=1&per_page=20&tracking_code=c4756df03af04dab6f108482457f69b2#sa_src=web-messaging)

20 years?! That is a disgrace. I'm sure glad they prioritized such things as "New Home Screen" (WOW), "Content Aware Crop" (which we could do in PS), and "Stock Photo Licensing" (which we could do from a browser).

Project Lincoln would be great. A beta would be great. An experience like XD for charts would be great if it isn't going to be built directly into illustrator. I'm fine with either at this point.

I suggest we tweet at Adobe Illustrator as well (@Illustrator). I used hashtags such as #Dataviz #UX #UserExperience #UPDATE #ListenToUs #Embarrassing

Lindsey Thomas Martin, agree. I was thinking about 20 years. Long before "CS" version whatever. It's maddening.

The graphing function is actually much older. I have been using since 1997 and it is virtually unchanged since then. I believe it was originally added to Illustrator 5 (Mac) in 1993.

Agreed. The tool has been practically unusable since its inception a decade ago. At least let us know if you've just decided to abandon it.

Someone below mentioned "Project Lincoln" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1BBMyY1bc
That is what I want. Even a beta version.

I agree with @Ian and @Nicolaas. Ridiculous that using data to create graphs is still such an issue with an when illustrator is used extensively for this and the calls are clear that it needs to be improved.

The UI is so antiquated and subpar. Honestly, it's embarrassing for a company that prides itself on UX to ignore this for so long. Not even simple improvements, just completely ignoring the issue for what, well over a decade? There isn't even a functional alternative within the Adobe suite. This is the only way to make charts in the Adobe workflow. It's crazy.

Please fix this Adobe. I don't know how much longer I can put up with this before moving to a different suite entirely as 50% of my time in illustrator is spent using this infuriating tool.

I agree with @Nicolaas. This feature still feels like a CS2 version than a CC2019 version.

Hi Yogesh, I notice that this request has been marked as "Need More Info" for nearly two years. The current version is still very substandard and not at all what I'd expect from an Adobe product. Please escalate this to a higher priority and get it fixed as soon as possible.

I'd also prefer, like many, to have the improvement implemented in Illustrator itself.
I think it could look like the 3D-Extrusion-Effect-Window. On the left you have a window with an Example of the graph and on the right you have the settings. Under these two you have the Excel-Sheet with the data .... so that you don't have to flip between those menues any more.
When inserting the excel-Sheet, you get a preview of your chart in the window. Then, by clicking at the elements, you can set the formats for every item.