Accessing Chart Formatting Tools

In this section:

Your presentation of data on a chart is successful when it communicates to your audience the message that you intend. InfoAssist helps you meet the needs of your audience and convey your message by providing numerous chart features. For example, you can adjust the appearance of a chart, add layers of information, or customize the labels that identify the data on the chart.


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Identifying Chart Elements

The following image identifies the basic elements that you can customize on a chart. The elements that are annotated here are for a vertical bar chart. The available elements and their right-click menu options vary according to the chart that you are creating.

Note: The 3D effect is not a default setting. It was enabled for the chart in the following image to enhance the appearance of the chart. To access the 3D option, go to the Format tab, and in the Features group, click 3D Effect.

Chart Elements

  1. Series
  2. Data Labels
  3. Legend
  4. Horizontal Gridlines
  5. Vertical Gridlines
  6. X-Axis Label
  7. Y-Axis Label
  8. Reference Line
  9. Annotation
  10. Frame
  11. Background

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Using Live Preview

In Live Preview, the canvas on the right of the window provides a preview of the report or chart that you can interact with. The preview is context sensitive, meaning that depending on what portion you select different options become available.

In Live Preview, when you hover the mouse over a graph element (for example, legend, axis label, title), the bounding area is highlighted with a dotted line. In the following image, the legend is highlighted.

Element Bounding Area Highlighted

In Live Preview, when you select a graph element (for example, legend, axis label, title), the bounding area is highlighted with a solid line. In the following image, the legend is selected.

selected area highlight

Once you select a chart element, you can access all available design options on the ribbon, or you can right-click an element to open a right-click menu of frequently-used design options. Once you have selected your design option from the ribbon or the menu, InfoAssist instantly applies it to the chart element, so that you see the result immediately.

This image shows a Live Preview of a bar chart in Live Preview. In this example, the right-click menu for a series (field) element is opened.

Right Click Menu

Right-click menus are enabled for charts that are generated with either sample data, or live data from your data source.

Note: Right-click menus are not available in InfoAssist Basic.

The following sections describe the chart elements, the ribbon options, and the right-click menus that you can work with to design your charts in Live Preview.


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Using Right-Click Field Options in the Query Design Pane

In the Query design pane, you can right-click any field and select from a list of available options that are displayed in the menu that appears. The options that you can select vary, depending on the type of Query field container in which the field is located, and the type of chart that you are creating.

When you create a chart, the Query field containers in the Query Design pane include Measure (Sum), X Axis, Legend (Series), Multi-graph, and Coordinated (for documents only).

Right-clicking a Measure (Sum) field in a chart displays the Filter Values, Sort, Visibility, Change Title, More, and Delete options. You can point to More to access the Aggregation Functions, Traffic Light Conditions, and Missing options.

Right-clicking an X Axis or Legend (Series) field in a chart displays the Filter Values, Sort, Visibility, Change Title, More, and Delete options. You can point to More to access the Missing option.

Right-clicking a Coordinated field or a Multi-graph field in a chart displays only the Delete option.

For more information, see Using Right-Click Field Options in the Query Design Pane.


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