Formatting the axes

A chart may contain the following axes (pie, indicator, and org charts do not have axes), this section introduces how to format each axis in detail:

Formatting the category axis

To format the category axis of a chart, take the following steps:

  1. Right-click any chart element, and then on the shortcut menu, select Format Category(X) Axes from the Format Axes submenu to bring out the Format Category(X) Axis dialog.
  2. In the Axis tab, specify settings for the axis.

    In the Option box, specify whether to show gridlines perpendicular to the axis, and if necessary, check Show Gridlines. When creating a scatter chart or the axis is used to show numeric data of a bubble chart, you can also specify the maximum and minimum values to be displayed and the difference between two adjacent values on the axis, and the number of tick marks to be shown on the axis.

    If you want to use a scrollbar to control the visible value range on the axis, check the Scrollable Chart option, then specify how many data items will be selected on the scrollbar and displayed on the axis by default, the percentage the scrollbar occupies the whole size of the chart, and whether to show the thumbnail chart in the scrollbar. It is available to 2-D charts of bar, bench, line, and area types in web reports and library components only. For details, see Creating a scrollable chart.

    In the Line box, set the line color, style, transparency, and thickness of the axis.

    In the Gap box, set the gap between the labels and the axis, and check Best Effect to draw the axis labels for the best result effect.

  3. Go to the Tick Mark tab to specify properties for the tick marks.
    1. In the Major Tick Mark and Minor Tick Mark sub tabs, set properties of the major and minor tick marks respectively.

      In the Type box, specify whether to show the tick marks and their position which can be inside/outside the chart or across the axis.

      In the Line box, specify the color, style, transparency and thickness of the tick marks. If you want to use the same line setting as that of the axis for the tick marks, check Correlate with Axis. Then specify the length of the tick marks.

      In the Option box, specify whether to show the tick mark labels. When the tick mark labels are shown on the axis, you can control the frequency at which the tick marks will be labeled, whether to display the complete label text when the mouse pointer points at a label on the axis, and the number of the tick mark labels to be displayed on the axis.

    2. In the Scale sub tab, check Use Constant Interval to label the major and minor tick marks with constant intervals and specify the minimum and maximum values used to label the tick marks, and the unit between two adjacent tick marks. Then the values for the tick marks will be increased continually based on the specified interval instead of just using values from database. This handles cases where data is missing such as weekend days may not show any activity but still need to be shown in the chart. This sub tab is available only when the field on the category axis is one of the following types: Number, Date, DateTime, and Time, and not applied to scatter charts or when the category axis is used to show numeric data in bubble charts.
  4. In the Font tab, format the font of the major and minor tick mark labels respectively, including the font face, size, color, transparency, rotation angle, shearing angle, and effects such as style, strikeout, underline and so on. If you want to apply the font setting of the major tick mark labels to the minor tick marks, check Correlate with Major Label in the Minor Label sub tab.
  5. In the Orientation tab, set the angles for the major and minor tick mark labels respectively so as to rotate them. You can either drag the Text hand in the Orientation box or type a value in the Angle spinner to perform the operation. You can also make the minor tick marks take the same orientation setting as that of the major tick marks.
  6. In the Format tab, specify the data format of the major and minor tick mark labels respectively.

    Select a category from the Category box, then select a format from the Format box and click Add to add it to the Stack box. If the formats listed in the Format box cannot meet your requirement, define the format in the Properties text field and click Add to add it as the format of the selected category. You can add more than one format, while for each category, only one format can be added. In the event that a format is not necessary, select it in the Stack box click Remove to clear it.

    To make the minor tick mark labels apply the format setting of the major tick marks, check Correlate with Major Label in the Minor Label sub tab.

  7. In the Behaviors tab (this tab is only available to library components), select a trigger event from the drop-down list in the Events column, then click in the Actions column and click that appears in the text box to open the Web Action List dialog, where you can bind a web action to the axis such as Parameter, Filter, Sort, Property, SendMessage which will be triggered when the specified event occurs on the axis.

    To add a web behavior line, click , and if a web behavior is not required, click to remove it.

    Click or to adjust the order of the behaviors. Then, when an event that has been bound with more than one action happens, the upper action will be triggered first.

  8. When done, click OK to accept the changes.

Time series data is data collected over time for a single or a group of variables. When using date series and time series values on the Category (X) axis it is often beneficial to see the chart with constant ranges rather than just what is in the data values. Missing values for weekends and holidays leaves gaps which distorts the chart and might lead to incorrect decisions. The following example shows how to use a constant interval to label time series data on the category axis:

  1. Open the catalog file SampleReports.cat.
  2. Click File > New > Page Report on the menu bar.
  3. Clear the text in the Report Title text box, select Chart from the layout box, then click OK.
  4. In the Data screen of Chart Wizard, check the New radio button, select the query WorldWideSales in Data Source 1 and then click Next.
  5. In the Type screen, check the Single chart radio button, select Line as the chart type and Line 2-D as the sub type, then click Next.
  6. In the Display screen, click <Add Summary...> under the Summaries node in the Resources box.
  7. In the New Summary dialog, specify the function as Sum, add the field Quantity from the Orders Detail table to the Summary On field, check the Static Summary radio button, specify the Group By field as Order Date from the Orders table, and then click OK.
  8. Enter Sum Quantity in the Summary Name dialog and click OK to create the summary.
  9. Add Sum Quantity to the Show Values box, the Order Date field will then be automatically added to the Category box.
    10. Click Next.
  10. In the Filter screen, click Add Condition to add a condition line, then select Order Date from the field drop-down list, >= from the operator drop-down list, and 2010-01-06 00:00:00.000 from the value drop-down list.
  11. Repeat the step above to add another condition line and set the the condition to Order Date <= 2010-01-28 00:00:00.000. Specify the relationship between the two conditions as And.
  12. Switch to the Style screen and select Basic from the Style list. Click Finish.
  13. Right-click the legend and select Hide Legend from the shortcut menu and resize the chart to make the data to be shown more clearly.
  14. Click the View tab to view this chart, and it appears as follows:

  1. Click the Design tab to return to the design mode.
  2. Right-click the chart and select Format Axes > Format Category(X) Axis from the shortcut menu. The Format Category(X) Axis dialog appears.
  3. In the Tick Mark tab of the dialog, click the Minor Tick Mark sub tab, check Inside in the Type box to show the minor tick marks inside the axis, and then check Show Minor Tick Mark Labels in the Option box to show the minor tick mark labels.
  4. Click the Scale sub tab, check the Use Constant Interval option, then set the Minimum, Maximum, Major Unit and Minor Unit options to Fixed. Specify the minimum value to Jan 1, 2010 12:00:00 AM and the maximum value to Jan 29, 2010 12:00:00 AM. Set the Major Unit and Minor Unit values to 1 and select the unit as Weeks and Days respectively which stand for 1 week and 1 day.

  5. In the Major Label sub tab of the Format tab, select the format in the Stack box and click Remove to delete it. Select Date/Time from the Category box, input M/d/yyyy in the Properties text box and click Add to add the format to the Stack box.

  6. Switch to the Minor Label sub tab, repeat the step above to specify the data format of the minor labels to d. Then click OK to apply the settings.
  7. Double-click the line to bring out the Format Line dialog. In the Node tab, select True from the Show Node drop-down list to show nodes on the line, and specify the node color to #000000. Click OK to accept the settings.
  8. Save the report and click the View tab, then the report will be shown as follows:

Note: The tick marks for date vary based on the actual data values so each tick mark does not represent the same date range.

See also the Format Category(X) Axis dialog for page report, web report, or library component for detailed explanation about options in the dialog.

Formatting the value axis

To format the value axis of a chart, take the following steps:

  1. Right-click any chart element, and then on the shortcut menu, select Format Value(Y) Axes from the Format Axes submenu to bring out the Format Value(Y) Axis dialog.
  2. In the Axis tab, specify settings for the axis.

    In the Option box, specify the maximum and minimum values to be displayed and the difference between two adjacent values on the axis, the number of tick marks to be shown on the axis, and whether or not to show the value labels on the axis in percent. If you want to show gridlines perpendicular to the axis, check Show Gridlines.

    In the Line box, set the line color, style, transparency, and thickness of the axis.

    In the Gap box, set the gap between the labels and the axis, and check Best Effect to draw the axis labels for the best result effect.

  3. In the Tick Mark tab, specify properties of the major and minor tick marks respectively.

    In the Type box, specify whether to show the tick marks and their position which can be inside/outside the chart or across the axis.

    In the Line box, specify the color, style, transparency and thickness of the tick marks. If you want to use the same line setting as that of the axis for the tick marks, check Correlate with Axis. Then specify the length of the major/minor tick marks.

    In the Option box (only available for minor tick marks), specify whether to show the major tick mark labels. When the major tick mark labels are shown on the axis, you can control the frequency at which the major tick marks will be labeled, whether to display the complete label text when the mouse pointer points at a label on the axis, and the number of the major tick mark labels to be displayed on the axis.

  4. In the Font tab, format the font for text in the major tick mark labels on the axis, including the font face, size, color, transparency, rotation angle, shearing angle, and effects such as style, strikeout, underline and so on.
  5. In the Orientation tab, set an angle for the major tick mark labels on the axis so as to rotate them. You can either drag the Text hand in the Orientation box or type a value in the Angle spinner to perform the operation.
  6. In the Format tab, specify the data format of the major tick mark labels on the axis.

    Select a category from the Category box, then select a format from the Format box and click Add to add it to the Stack box. If the formats listed in the Format box cannot meet your requirement, define the format in the Properties text field and click Add to add it as the format of the selected category. You can add more than one format, while for each category, only one format can be added. In the event that a format is not necessary, select it in the Stack box click Remove to clear it.

  7. In the Behaviors tab (this tab is only available to library components), select a trigger event from the drop-down list in the Events column, then click in the Actions column and click that appears in the text box to open the Web Action List dialog, where you can bind a web action to the axis such as Parameter, Filter, Sort, Property, SendMessage which will be triggered when the specified event occurs on the axis.

    To add a web behavior line, click , and if a web behavior is not required, click to remove it.

    Click or to adjust the order of the behaviors. Then, when an event that has been bound with more than one action happens, the upper action will be triggered first.

  8. When done, click OK to accept the changes.

See also Format Value(Y) Axis dialog and Format Value(Y2) Axis dialog for detailed explanation about options in the dialogs.

Formatting the series axis

To format the series axis of a chart, take the following steps:

  1. Right-click any chart element, and then on the shortcut menu, select Format Series(Z) Axes from the Format Axes submenu to bring out the Format Series(Z) Axis dialog.
  2. In the Axis tab, specify settings for the axis.

    In the Option box, specify whether or not to only draw the axis (hide the labels), and if not, specify the number of labels to be shown along the axis, the frequency at which the axis will be labeled, whether or not to display the label text when the mouse pointer points at a label on the axis. If you want to show gridlines perpendicular to the axis, check Show Gridlines.

    In the Line box, set the line color, style, transparency, and thickness of the axis.

    In the Labels box, set the gap between the labels and the axis, and check Best Effect to draw the axis labels for the best result effect.

  3. In the Tick Mark tab, specify properties of the tick marks.

    In the Tick Mark box, specify the color, style, transparency and thickness of the tick marks. If you want to use the same line setting as that of the axis for the tick marks, check Correlate with Axis.

    In the Major Tick Mark and Minor Tick Mark boxes, set properties for the major and minor tick marks respectively, including whether to show these marks, the position, and length of the marks.

  4. In the Font tab, format the font for text in the major tick mark labels on the axis, including the font face, size, color, transparency, rotation angle, shearing angle, and effects such as style, strikeout, underline and so on.
  5. In the Orientation tab, set an angle for the major tick mark labels on the axis so as to rotate them. You can either drag the Text hand in the Orientation box or type a value in the Angle spinner to perform the operation.
  6. In the Format tab, specify the data format of the major tick mark labels on the axis.

    Select a category from the Category box, then select a format from the Format box and click Add to add it to the Stack box. If the formats listed in the Format box cannot meet your requirement, define the format in the Properties text field and click Add to add it as the format of the selected category. You can add more than one format, while for each category, only one format can be added. In the event that a format is not necessary, select it in the Stack box click Remove to clear it.

  7. In the Behaviors tab (this tab is only available to library components), select a trigger event from the drop-down list in the Events column, then click in the Actions column and click that appears in the text box to open the Web Action List dialog, where you can bind a web action to the axis such as Parameter, Filter, Sort, Property, SendMessage which will be triggered when the specified event occurs on the axis.

    To add a web behavior line, click , and if a web behavior is not required, click to remove it.

    Click or to adjust the order of the behaviors. Then, when an event that has been bound with more than one action happens, the upper action will be triggered first.

  8. When done, click OK to accept the changes.

See also Format Series(Z) Axis dialog for detailed explanation about options in the dialog.