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What software can be used to create an ideology scale like this?
I tried to use Excel, but it seems impossible, the only way was timeline with dates (0 - 10), but even that didn't place names automatically and it seems it is not meant for stuff like this. Option like -2 -1 0 1 2 wasn't possible in excel.
For reasons that shall become apparent, the list of software that can do this is absolutely staggering. The reason for this is that you do not list any border constraints for the application.
Let us start by stating that you can indeed do this chart in Excel, it might not be an ideal application for it but it can be done. And indeed if you already have the suitable data analysis in excel then you might as well do it in excel. After all even if it takes and hour to do in excel its still lot less time than learning a new application. (Now I wouldn't do this in excel, in fact I feel that doing anything in excel is just a waste of resources.)
Image 1: Quick test in excel doing all the elements now all you need is styling and real data
For similar reasons you can do this in software like LibreOffice Calc and SPSS (which may be better than excel).
Another option is to use a statistical/scientific/mathematical package like, R (free) , Matlab, Mathematica, Maple or scipy (free) and so on. Mainly because they have MUCH more powerful graphing options than excel.
Using a graphics application. Yes you can do this all in illustrator without much effort. Even automatically form live data if you wish but that's not really beginner easy. But beyond this the number of applications possible is staggering since you can in fact do this in notepad, or command line or even your browser.
I would choose an application based on what my data sources are, what analysis i need to do one the data and what my end use is going to be (web print).
