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.

I would like this inside of Illustrator - just an improvement of the existing tool. And having graph styles would be very handy

I agree, this is a very useful tool but it sits in stark contrast to all the other features that have been included and updated in Illustrator over the years. Typically if you format any element of a graph (say the line widths or font styles) they revert to ugly over sized text or thick rules if any new data is added. Colors are a mystery, with black forcing its way back into the palette even when other colors are used, again when new data is added, and the interface looks like it belongs to Illustrator 3. I could go on... please have a look at this tool and update.

Inside Illustrator. Enough with the extra apps and plugins craziness.

I would rather have the tool within Illustrator improved, to be able to make full advantage of the illustrator styling tools.

Update Illustrator Variable tool to allow the ability to:

1. Bind variable to individual objects within a graph not just a graph as a whole

2. Bind variable to multiple copies of 1 object and be able to vary each copy (individually or together based on selection) by dataset

Update Graph tool to allow the ability to:

1. Import CSV or XML with variable dataset so a user can copy a graph design X amount of times and toggle through the dataset to display variable graph data without having to manually create X amount of individual graphs and individually change the data X amount of times per graph

2. Add Percent symbol to the end of totals in column design

Hi is there any update on this? I have a template with formatted charts/graphs that need updating weekly. I would love to simply link my excel file which updates from our DB weekly and have my charts/graphs update.

Or is there a workaround for when I have to manually upate data for charts/graphs that the formatting is lost? I update data for 10 charts a week and each time I lose all formatting.

Any answer is appreciated

chart styles. templates. yes.

Sorry, I would add that an absolutely key feature is automatic chart updates, as the source data changes - be that some form of dynamic link to Excel, or to a data file (.csv?)