Chart Formatting

Overview

The main chart configuration menu provides you with all the formatting options for your chart. You can use these options to change the legend, background, axis and label settings.

Chart

The chart section of the format menu has been discussed above mainly for the chart selection drop down. This is not covered in detail here but should be referred to above.
The main formatting options consist of the chart format drop down and the Chart Title drop down.

Settings

The chart format options are the most dynamic options and are based on the type of chart selected. For example for a pie chart you will be able to set the shadow colour and exploding slice options.
The common options found in the chart format drop down include interactivity options such as visible series selection.

 Chart Size & Position

Option	Description
Width	Define the width of the chart in pixels. This option is used instead of resizing the chart using the dragging method.
Height	Define the height of the chart in pixels. This option is used instead of resizing the chart using the dragging method.

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 Chart Size & Position

Option	Description
Width	Define the width of the chart in pixels. This option is used instead of resizing the chart using the dragging method.
Height	Define the height of the chart in pixels. This option is used instead of resizing the chart using the dragging method.

 Chart Style

Option	Description
Colour Set	Define which colours the chart will use by default. The options are: Metric Colour: if a colour has been applied to a metric field in the view, this colour can be used in the chart. Monochrome: a colour can be defined here and shades of that colour will be used in the chart. Default/Configuration Colours: this uses the default set of colours defined by a system administrator. Reference Code Colour: if colours have been applied to a reference code, and a dimension field has that code applied the colours can be used.
Hollow Shapes	when using line shapes on a line chart this hollows the centre of the shape.
Curved Lines	when using a line chart this will curve the line, rather than being straight lines between each point.

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 Chart Style

Option	Description
Colour Set	Define which colours the chart will use by default. The options are: Metric Colour: if a colour has been applied to a metric field in the view, this colour can be used in the chart. Monochrome: a colour can be defined here and shades of that colour will be used in the chart. Default/Configuration Colours: this uses the default set of colours defined by a system administrator. Reference Code Colour: if colours have been applied to a reference code, and a dimension field has that code applied the colours can be used.
Hollow Shapes	when using line shapes on a line chart this hollows the centre of the shape.
Curved Lines	when using a line chart this will curve the line, rather than being straight lines between each point.

 Chart Interaction

Option	Description
Visible Series Selection	This option will allow you to toggle between the series that you have selected for your chart (if Bar, Line style etc) or those that are available in your data set when only a single series can be selected for that chart type (Pie, Map) See: [Visible Series Selection]
Link Field	If you have a field formatted to contain a URL you can select it here to enable it on the chart.

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 Chart Interaction

Option	Description
Visible Series Selection	This option will allow you to toggle between the series that you have selected for your chart (if Bar, Line style etc) or those that are available in your data set when only a single series can be selected for that chart type (Pie, Map) See: [Visible Series Selection]
Link Field	If you have a field formatted to contain a URL you can select it here to enable it on the chart.

 Time Series Options

Option	Description
Annotations	Annotations can be displayed on charts to prompt a user to view the comments made for a select data point. Option Time Series Options
Date Slider	If your report is a time series (eg you Label is a date and you gave selected time series) you will be able to turn on the date slider. This allows you to zoom in and out of time banded data.
Yearly Comparison	If you have a line chart which is a time series spanning more than 1 year you can use the yearly comparison to split the line into 12 month groups for easy comparison. When using this option the data granularity is set to month and cannot be changed.
Date Granularity	Allow you to set the time units of the chart to match the data set. Eg if data set is hourly you can view the time periods as hours. If you set the option greater than hourly ie day then your data will be aggregated to the day period.

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 Time Series Options

Option	Description
Annotations	Annotations can be displayed on charts to prompt a user to view the comments made for a select data point. Option Time Series Options
Date Slider	If your report is a time series (eg you Label is a date and you gave selected time series) you will be able to turn on the date slider. This allows you to zoom in and out of time banded data.
Yearly Comparison	If you have a line chart which is a time series spanning more than 1 year you can use the yearly comparison to split the line into 12 month groups for easy comparison. When using this option the data granularity is set to month and cannot be changed.
Date Granularity	Allow you to set the time units of the chart to match the data set. Eg if data set is hourly you can view the time periods as hours. If you set the option greater than hourly ie day then your data will be aggregated to the day period.

 Pie Chart

Option	Description
Opacity	By reducing opacity you can make the pie slightly see through. This option will make the shadow more visible and give a raised effect to the chart.
Other Segment	This setting is useful if you have a pie which contains many segments which are too small to be accurately plotted. Use the other Segment to size to set the % at which smaller values should be grouped and displayed as "Other".
Shadow Colour	Sets the background shadow colour
Outline Colour	Sets the outline of the pie and segment line colour
Outline Width	Sets the outline of the pie and segment line width
Pie Shading Style	These options provide you with the capacity to create Bevelled and Inset looking pie charts for better presentation.
Explode Slice	If you wish to highlight the largest or smallest segments you can do so using the explode setting.
Start Position	Using this option you can decide where on the pie the segments start, moving clockwise around to fill the chart, allowing you to rotate the chart.
Depth Factor	Used for 3D Pie Charts, this allows you to define how tall the sides of the pie are, the higher the % the taller the pie.
Keep Circular	Used for 3D Pie Charts, this allows you to set the pie to always display as a circle, or allow it to be resized and stretched into an oval.

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 Pie Chart

Option	Description
Opacity	By reducing opacity you can make the pie slightly see through. This option will make the shadow more visible and give a raised effect to the chart.
Other Segment	This setting is useful if you have a pie which contains many segments which are too small to be accurately plotted. Use the other Segment to size to set the % at which smaller values should be grouped and displayed as "Other".
Shadow Colour	Sets the background shadow colour
Outline Colour	Sets the outline of the pie and segment line colour
Outline Width	Sets the outline of the pie and segment line width
Pie Shading Style	These options provide you with the capacity to create Bevelled and Inset looking pie charts for better presentation.
Explode Slice	If you wish to highlight the largest or smallest segments you can do so using the explode setting.
Start Position	Using this option you can decide where on the pie the segments start, moving clockwise around to fill the chart, allowing you to rotate the chart.
Depth Factor	Used for 3D Pie Charts, this allows you to define how tall the sides of the pie are, the higher the % the taller the pie.
Keep Circular	Used for 3D Pie Charts, this allows you to set the pie to always display as a circle, or allow it to be resized and stretched into an oval.

 Meter Charts

Option	Description
Needle Colour	Sets the colour of the Needle to be used on the plot
Font Settings	Allows you to set the font settings to be displayed on the plot.
Opacity	By reducing opacity you can make the plot slightly see through.
Inner Colour	This option is for thermometers only and lets you change the colour of the 'mercury'

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 Meter Charts

Option	Description
Needle Colour	Sets the colour of the Needle to be used on the plot
Font Settings	Allows you to set the font settings to be displayed on the plot.
Opacity	By reducing opacity you can make the plot slightly see through.
Inner Colour	This option is for thermometers only and lets you change the colour of the 'mercury'

 Combination Charts

Option	Description
Orientation	Determine the orientation of your chart by selection either horizontal or vertical orientation.
Chart Type	The combination chart lets you create multiple charts to be displayed in a single plot. You also have the ability to add new charts by clicking the add link. Choose between Line or Bar for the chart type that you want to display.
3D	The 3D option lets you choose if the bar or line is to be displayed in the 3D style or if unchecked in a plain style.
Secondary Axis	If you have selected Overlay chart you can have a secondary axis option. This will display the axis on the right hand side of the chart for the selected chart.

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 Combination Charts

Option	Description
Orientation	Determine the orientation of your chart by selection either horizontal or vertical orientation.
Chart Type	The combination chart lets you create multiple charts to be displayed in a single plot. You also have the ability to add new charts by clicking the add link. Choose between Line or Bar for the chart type that you want to display.
3D	The 3D option lets you choose if the bar or line is to be displayed in the 3D style or if unchecked in a plain style.
Secondary Axis	If you have selected Overlay chart you can have a secondary axis option. This will display the axis on the right hand side of the chart for the selected chart.

Title

The title option allows you to change the title of the chart as well as the style - such as the font settings.

Legend

The Legend is a box that identifies the patterns or colours that are assigned to the data series or categories in a chart. This section of the menu lets you set the following options.

Background

The background options let you set the style and colour of the main chart elements such as the plot and chart areas. You can apply elements such as background images and or gridlines.

Gridlines

Gridline options are available for all category charts, bubble and scatter charts.

Plot

The plot area is the area bounded by the axes, including all data series. The drop down options let you set the background colours applied to the plot area.

Chart Area

The entire chart and all its elements are described as the chart area. The drop down options let you set the background colours applied to the chart area.

Axis

A line bordering the chart plot area used as a frame of reference for measurement. The y axis is usually the vertical axis and contains data. The x-axis is usually the horizontal axis and contains categories.

Titles

Style

The Axis style drop down lets you determine the formats to be applied to axis. This drop down is divided into 2 sections - X and Y axis.

Scale

The Axis scale drop down lets you determine the scale dimensions. Generally you will only be able to set the Y Axis attributes - unless you are using XY charts in which case you can set both X & Y attributes.

Labels

Labels can be added to charts to print out the values of the data point onto the chart in text format. Generally the formatting of label options are only available for pie charts.