General properties of graphs

The second page of the wizard for creating graphs allows you to control some general properties of the graph regardless of the type of graph or the data source.

Selection

• Set the option for how selections are handled in graphs.

  By default, all entries in the data source will be displayed in the graph, and selections will be highlighted. It is also possible to have the graphs show only the data that is selected.

  

General properties

• You can change the title of the graph in the general graph properties. You can also add a footer here that will be added to the bottom of the graph.
• Check the Graph in 3D view check box to display the graph with an extruded 3D-like effect.

  

  Note:

  Note that the 3D view rarely provides meaningful information in a graph. It often makes visual comparisons difficult, particularly when using pie graphs or multiple series.

  Tufte, E. R., The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, 1983.

Legend

• Check or uncheck the Graph legend check box to make the legend for the graph available or unavailable. Most graph types will have this enabled by default.
• Add the text for the title in the Title text box. The graph legend, by default, will not have a title.
• The legend can be placed at the left, right, top, or bottom of the graph, which you can control with the Position control. The default location is on the right side of the graph.

  

Axes

• The graph has four axes managed with the Left, Right, Bottom, and Top tabs under Axis Properties.
• The Visible check box determines which of the axes will be labeled with values.
• In the Title control, you can type the text to use for the name of each axis.
• The Logarithmic check box can be used on each axis to make semi-log and log-log graphs.

  Logarithmic graphs are often used to compress large ranges of data and where there are nonlinear relationships between the values.

  Note:

  Logarithmic axes do not apply to pie graphs.

  

Completing the graph

When you click Finish, the completed graph is displayed.

Once created, graphs can be modified anytime afterwards in the Properties and Advanced Properties dialog boxes.

Advanced properties

Setting advanced properties allows you to have more control over the appearance of the graph than that available from the Graph Wizard.

You can access the Advanced Properties dialog box by right-clicking on a graph and clicking Advanced Properties. You can also open the dialog box in the Graph Manager.