Question about the Orientation of Charts in Business Documents

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not_HarryS

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Hey, everyone!

I just had a quick question:

I'm working on putting together a big RFP for some clients of ours, and I'm not sure how to orient the charts within the document.

Which is to say, they are horizontal charts and the document (a book, rather) is vertically bound. That said, should the top of the charts be oriented to the left (facing the binding) or should the tops of the charts be aligned to the right?

Our style guide doesn't really address this, so I was just wondering what tends to be the industry standard.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help :)
 

backslashbaby

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We always use the top facing the binding if the charts are horizontal. We do more proposals than anything, I think [Turnaround Consulting] ;) ;)
 

alleycat

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Yep, top of chart at the binding (left) edge.
 

not_HarryS

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Thanks a lot for the help, guys :)

I actually don't like them facing the binding. With some of our smaller charts, all of the important information tends to be near the top of the page, and you practically have to rip our friggin' proposals in half at the spine before you can get a decent look at them.

But standard practice is standard practice. Ho-hum.

It's a good thing no one actually looks at all these goddamn charts. Haha.
 
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alleycat

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Have you considered using a fold-out? If you don't have too many charts to include, that could be a good option.
 

not_HarryS

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I haven't, actually!

The thing is, though, that I'm in China, and like... we don't really have access to bourgeois capitalist luxuries like "fold-outs" and "human rights" and whatnot. So I'm just going to keep whittling this proposal out of a giant chunk of dead bamboo, and we're gonna pretend that you didn't just flaunt your fancy fold-outs in my face like that. Whaddya' say?

(Which is to say... that's an excellent suggestion. Thank you very much. Haha. I'm gonna try that on my next proposal :))
 

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Our style guide doesn't really address this, so I was just wondering what tends to be the industry standard.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help :)

You orient them with two considerations:

1. Practical--are there costs involved?

2. Do what's easiest for your reader/user. Always. Will one orientation make the chart easier for them to read? Will the binding be a problem one way and not the other?
 

Terie

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And I'd add...can you possibly reconfigure the information to be portrait? I know that's not always possible, but I always take a fresh look at any landscape pages in my documentation to see if it can be chunked differently so it'll fit portrait.
 

not_HarryS

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You orient them with two considerations:

1. Practical--are there costs involved?

2. Do what's easiest for your reader/user. Always. Will one orientation make the chart easier for them to read? Will the binding be a problem one way and not the other?

See, that's what I thought. I personally think that it would be easier to read these particular charts were they oriented to the right. Thing is, the big kahoona is really particular about formatting details in spite of our company not having a style guide. Haha. This past week has been a headache.

Thanks everyone for your input, though :)

As for portrait-ifying charts and such, I totally agree: I prefer them vertical too. But things in Excel always turn to shit when you try to format them in portrait mode. It's definitely fixable, but I just don't have the time to go through all of these and make the necessary changes.

Here's to tight deadlines and unachievable standards! :e2drunk:Oh yeah.
 
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