We said that the categories correspond to the rows of a report and the series to the columns. While in Grid Graph mode, it is easy to pivot the objects, yet the real estate for the graph is somewhat limited, especially in the case of very large reports.
Meet the drop zones: they are a valuable tool when it comes to position the attributes in their place. The previous chart had one attribute and one metric. The next one will complicate things a little by adding a time dimension.
We need a report with Sum SalesAmount from FactInternetSales grouped by Product Category and by Month. You can put the attributes on rows and the metrics on columns; we'll adjust them in a moment.
Here's how to use the drop zones:
- Run the report in Grid View, then click on View | Graph View menu.
- When the Graph Type window appears, click on Line in the left listbox, the Vertical tab is automatically selected. Now choose the first type (Vertical Line:Absolute) and click on OK.
- The image that appears is not very useful, is it? We'd better move the Product Category to series in order to have each category in a different color.
- Look for a button in the toolbar whose tool tip says Show Drop Zones, it looks like the one in the following icon:
- When you click on it, you'll see three areas appear on the sides of the graph. They show the objects that are pictured on the chart and allow you to move them from one zone to the other.
- Pick Product Category with the mouse and drag it from the Categories zone to the Series zone, dropping it below the Metrics box.
- Now the image changes and there are three lines one for each Product Category, the Legend reflects the change and the image starts looking like something useful, yet there is space for improvement.
- The legend is very confusing with the name of the metric and the product category; so we click on the Data | Report Data Options menu.
- In the Report Data Options window we select Display | Alias from the tree on the left.
- There is a grid named Object Alias Settings with two columns: Object and Alias. In the row corresponding to Sum SalesAmount from FactInternetSales, we click in the Alias column and type a blank space.
- The blank space is practically invisible so when we click on OK and re-execute the report, the Legend will display only the product category names.
- In order to tell the user which metric we are looking at, we modify the graph title. Right-click on the title, it may be something like New Report (n) and from the context menu that appears select Titles….
- In the Preferences window, modify the Title textbox from
{&REPORTNAME}toSales Amount from Internet. - Now it looks better and we can save it as
22 Internet Sales by Product Category and Month.
Drop zones are a useful tool to help fine tune the aspect of a graph. When it comes to charts I personally have a theory: only the information that is needed and the least possible information. We don't want the user to stare at a Miró masterpiece (http://www.todocuadros.com/tienda/pinturas-abstractas/fantasia-miro) and call us for support.
The data markers, while useful, are sometimes too crowded for my taste. That is why I tend to remove when they're not badly needed, or at least to reduce their size:
- From the Graph | Graph Options menu, expand Series on the left tree: here you have Bikes, Clothing, and Accessories. We can enable or disable data markers independently for each product category.
- Click on Bikes and on the right uncheck a box labeled Show Markers on Line.
- Click on Clothing, leave Show Markers on Line checked but decrease the Marker Size to
20. - Click on Accessories, leave the default values and change Marker Shape to
Circle. - When you confirm with OK, the graph will be updated accordingly.