Help Topics

Setting Chart Types


The Chart Types and Configuration dialog box allows you to:

The most common chart types can be selected from Chart > Types in the menu bar. These include the Pie chart, Line chart, Bar chart, and 3D Bar chart.

To select a chart type other than the ones listed in the menu bar, under the Chart Types tab,

  1. Select Chart Types... from the chart's right-click menu.
    The Chart Types and Configuration dialog box appears.
  2. In the Chart Type drop-down list, select a chart type.
    A preview of the chart appears in the dialog box.
  3. Click the OK button to close the dialog box and implement the changes.
    The application updates to reflect the changes.

When you click the Apply button the changes are implemented but the dialog box remains open.

Below are some chart types that either have special behaviors, require additional data configuration, or deserve some descriptions on what they are.

Chart type

Description

Contribution chart

This chart type is similar to a "stacked waterfall" chart that lets you identify the correlation between two data series. For more information, see Configure contribution charts.

Dial chart

This chart type always chart the first data cell in the grid. Configuring the axis placement does not have any effect on dial charts.

Dual Axis and BiPolar charts

These charts shows the data with two Y axes:

Dual Axis Chart
This screen shot shows a bar chart with two Y axes, one on the left and the other on the right.

BiPolar Chart
This screen shot shows two bar charts stacked together, with one on top and the other at the bottom. Each has its own Y axis labels, but the two have the same dimension on the X axis and legend axis at the bottom.

For these charts, you need to configure the data to specify which members should appear on the 2nd Y axis.

Histogram chart

This chat type is used for visualizing data distribution. It displays the frequencies of data "bins" that include a range of cell values. This chart type requires specification of histogram options in the Chart Types and Configuration dialog.

Pareto chart

Named after the economist who formulated the 80/20 prinicple (i.e. 20% of the people held 80% of wealth), this chart adds a line to a bar chart showing the running total as a percentage. It is often used to identify the small subset of biggest contributors (80/20 analysis).

Radar chart

Also known as spiderweb chart or spider graph, this chart is typically used to evaluate multiple alternatives against several factors.

Waterfall chart

This chart shows components of a total by showing positive and negative values in different colors.


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