Formatting Option Element

Formatting Option Element Description

Title & Explanation

This dialog may be opened for all graphical or tabular object types and is used to set titles and explanations on objects.

Clicking the ‘Title and Explanation link’, presents the Title and Explanation Edit Dialog, shown below.

§ By default an automatic title is generated from the data in the object.

§ A Custom title may be entered in the text field and translated to all supported languages by clicking the globe.

§ The last option is to hide any titles from being displayed in the object.

A custom explanation may be entered in the large text field and translated in the same way as the title by clicking the globe and entering a translation.  The translation produces mapped text which is displayed in the object explanation.

Chart Properties:

The content of the chart properties dialog may change depending on the selected chart type, but the three tabs:

§ Chart,

§ Axes and

§ Background

are always present for any of the chart types.  This example uses a Bar Chart () as the current chart type for the active object.

Clicking the current chart type property link (e.g., a Bar Chart), the Edit Chart Properties dialog appears allowing you to select and configure the chart using the displayed panel for any selected tab, as shown below.

-     The Chart Tab

The chart tab includes options to:

§ Enable/Disable the legend

§ Select the legend position in the object

§ Specify 3D, cylindrical bars and gradient effects may also be enabled/disabled for some charts.

The 'Multi Series' function is available to some of the charts.

This feature will rearrange the graphical elements on a chart making the values of the data more visible. The rearrangement of the graphical object will have no effect on which data the axes represent.

However, the value range of the axes may be changed to fit the new arrangement of the object.

The effect of this function varies depending on 2D or 3D view as well as the number of dimensions selected. There are a number of different ways to arrange data depending on the chart type.

For additional information on Multi Series see its description in the Formatting Functions topic table.

-     The Axes Tab

In the axes tab dimension:

§ Grid lines may be enabled/disabled.

§ Grid lines for both dimensions and left/right axes are disabled by default when creating new charts.

§ Options to display axis titles and vertical axis labels are also available.

For more information on these options, please refer to the 'Show axis titles' and 'Vertical axis labels' table entries in this section.

Measures and calculations are placed on the same axis by default. In the list of measures and calculations the axis may be specified for each.  This makes it easier to view data where the span in data values across measures/calculations is large.

Charts contain a coordinate plane with X- and Y-axes.  The properties of these axes are set automatically based on the span of data values and the type of graph.

Some of these properties, such as show/hide grid lines, number format, upper and lower limit and minimum step size may be formatted by clicking the links below the measures/calculations list to improve the graphical visualization.

-     The Background Tab

In the background tab, any of the backgrounds added through Analytics Management Studio may be inserted as object background.

The Background Option is set to ‘None’ by default.

Map

When a new Map object is added, the Properties Tab displays the Map Properties Link to activate Edit Map Properties dialog which provides an option to select one of the maps added in Analytics Management Studio or pre-defined for the DocuPhase Analytics solution, as shown below.

Note: Since the current object is a Map graphical object, this Properties Tab Option link is named ‘Map’ – Similarly, a Bar Chart has a link labeled ‘Bar chart’; the same is true since the link is named for its specific type of object.

Scalable Map

Connections to scalable maps may exist for selections once they have been added by the Analytics Management Studio component under LOB licensing.

Note: Scalable Maps require TAB-format custom maps and the installation of a GIS system with a custom license
(see topic: Special Custom Contract Options).

In the scalable maps dialog one of the connected maps may be selected for the object. Automatic zoom is enabled by default on a map and causes the scalable map to zoom according to the data in it.

For example, when a criteria is set on a map, such that only data for Denmark and Germany is represented, then the map is automatically zoomed to a point that exactly contains Denmark and Germany.

When there is a list of layers with visibility properties, each layer may be set to one of the properties:

§ 'Show',

§ 'Only data' (only elements in layer if data are available), or

§ 'Hide'.

If a group layer is available in the GIS-map, settings may be applied for the entire group layer instead of applying the same settings to all individual layers.

Cross Tabulation

This feature allows individual rows or ranges of rows in a Table object, Cross Tabulation object or the data page of a graphical object to be formatted.

When a data object has been selected for formatting, the following options are available:

§ Background color,

§ Border and Font.

Selecting the Background color option opens a small color selector with options to enter HSV, RGB or HTML color values or select a color from the spectrum or the predefined colors.

Selecting Border provides options to change the border width and color it with the same color picker as for background color.

The Font option opens a new dialog where all of the fonts installed on the system may be selected.

Other options such as font size, color and style may also be selected.

At the bottom of the dialog, an example text box shows the formatting of the current selections.

At the right side of the dialog, all recently used fonts are shown – not just in this analysis, but across the Analytics Document.

Note: Checking the 'Use default font' checkbox overrides the selected font and size.

For each data object, the formatting may be copied and inserted in other data objects.

Visibility

Measures in the object may be either hidden completely or hidden for a specified range of dimension values.

In the case of hierarchical dimensions, there are options to hide or show:

§ Individual dimension levels,

§ Calculated columns, or

§ Calculated rows may be hidden.

The results of the selections chosen may be immediately observed for the selected Object in the Analysis Work area.

Labels and Hints

The ‘Labels and Hints’ editor opened by this link allows specifications of the content of labels and hints.

Hints are labels which will be shown when the mouse is hovered over an active element of a graphical Object.

Labels are hints which may be permanently visible in the Object.

The editor’s first element is a button to Show or Hide labels.

§ The format section of the editor shows the ‘All’ radio button followed by a list of measures and calculated fields in the object, each preceded by a checkbox and a radio button.

§ The checkbox controls whether the label is shown or not

§ An active radio button indicates that the Formatting options in the section below are relevant for this measure or calculated field, or all if that radio button is active.

§ The Formatting options section shows a checklist of available options. Checked items are made visible in the label and the hint for the selected measure(s) and / or calculation(s) or all.

Numbers

This link opens a dialog where a measure or calculation may be selected when there are several measures or numerical calculations in the selected object.

Three formatting options exist for measures:

§ The Database default – Retains the formatting conventions set in the source database.

§ Numeric formatting – Enables advanced formatting of numeric values. Time.

§ Time formatting – Allows the source time unit in the database or a display-unit available in the object to be selected.

After selecting a formatting option on a number to format, the dialog changes and formatting of the number (e.g., Amount) shown in the top of the dialog may be performed, as illustrated below. 

Likewise, another number may be selected by clicking the number.

The cell alignment may be set for each number, but when the object is of the type: Bar, Line or Area chart – The object type may be interchanged between these three types.

Two fields are shown to the right of the formatting area.

§ The upper field, 'Copy from...',  makes it possible to copy the formatting from other formatted numbers in the object.

§ If the object has chart axes, it is also possible to copy the formatting of the left and right chart axes to the current number formatting.

§ The lower field, 'Recently used', displays the five most recently used format strings for the user.

Note: Numeric Formatting is explained in more detail by the Numeric Formatting topic, following this table.

Dynamic Captions

This link can be used to create manually defined dynamic captions. There are two (2) ways to set Dynamic captions.

§ You can right click your cross-tab on its heading that you would like to make dynamic; or,

§ When your object is active, you can find “Format dynamic captions” under Properties in the Smartpad.

Using the first option – to set dynamic captions provides two features: 

§ Setting dynamic captions for a single member or all members on a level.

§ After making an appropriate choice, the Smartpad changes and the dynamic captions may be configured.

Using the second option – the Properties tab in the Smartpad will change and show captions for the elements of the highlighted object (e.g., Measures or Calculations).  Clicking one of the elements changes the Smartpad again such that the caption for the chosen element can be configured.

The following example is performed using the Second Option.

Editing of captions is done in the text box which appears at the top of the Smartpad.

§ Captions may be entered manually or chosen from the list of references placed below the text box.

§ Captions are entered in the format {reference:postfix}, where the postfix may be first, last or all depending on which values should be included in the caption:

 The default reference for a caption is cell-value without a postfix.

Note: Dynamic captions for a member may be reset to the original caption by clicking on the caption in the Smartpad and clicking 'Reset to original caption' under the caption text box.

Element Colors

Menu: Object > Chart Right-click menu: Chart > Format element colors

The ‘Element colors’ link opens a dialog with options to set the object color or shared color for each dimension member, as shown below.

Clicking the assigned color or the 'Assign color' text opens the color picker, where a color may be chosen by moving the color slider and selecting a color from the color square.

Standard or recent colors may also be selected and HSV, RGB or HTML color codes may be entered to set a specific color.

Note: The difference between using the visibility and color formatting options and their corresponding Visibility and Color Agents is as follows:

§ The formatting options are used for prompting, unconditional formatting of measures, dimension values or calculated values.

§ Intelligent Agents are designed to automatically apply the formatting according to certain conditions, as defined by the user.

Any color agents or auto agents will override the manually formatted colors.  Editing of shared colors is limited to users with ‘Analytics Design’ user permission.