>particularly when the actual numbers are unimportant.
That's more or less my philosophy on pie charts. I find them helpful to use at the outset of a presentation to help provide some context for what's to follow (for example, the relative sales of Divisions A, B & C).
That said, I have no sympathy for anyone who uses side-by-side pie charts in order to make comparisons.
But I agree they are sometimes used when a bar graph would be much more appropriate.