Formatting an Interactive Bubble Graph widget

What to Format in the Widget

How to Format It

Assign colors to the bubbles based on the selected object

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the General tab, select the Assign colors based on option, then select the object name from the drop-down list. For instance, if Brand is on the widget, then each brand's bubble will display in a different color.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Determine drilling behavior

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the Drilling tab, select or clear the Enable drilling check box. If the check box is selected, a user can click on a bubble in the chart to drill down on that bubble's data. This presents a drilled-to (child) bubble with related data. To enable drilling, you must also place a second attribute to the right of the attribute in the rows. For information about this requirement, see Defining an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.
   
   Note: This option does not completely enable drilling. For detailed information on the data requirements for drilling in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget, see Enabling drilling in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.

3. To determine whether a line appears between a drilled bubble and its corresponding drilled-to (child) bubble, select or clear the Connect bubbles when drilling check box. The line allows you to better visualize which bubbles contain related information.

4. Click OK to save the changes.

Display the graph legend inside or outside the graph

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the General tab, select or clear the Display legend outside of graph check box.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Size of bubbles in reference to parent bubbles

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the General tab, do one of the following:

• Select the Use width (vs. area) to size the bubbles check box to use the sum of the diameters of the drilled-to (child) bubbles as the diameter of the parent bubble.

• Clear the Use width (vs. area) to size the bubbles check box to use the area of the child bubbles as the area of the parent bubble.

3. You can also specify a maximum bubble size in the Maximum bubble radius size field.

4. Click OK to save the changes.

Whether or not to display bubbles with a rounded effect

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the General tab, select or clear the Apply Rounded Effect to Bubbles check box.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Enable or disable time series animation

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the Time Analysis tab, select or clear the Enable time series analysis check box. If time series analysis is enabled:

• The user can control the time series animation. To enable time series animation, make sure there is a third attribute on the rows of the Grid/Graph. For information about this requirement, see Defining an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.

• You can select or clear the Auto-Hide time controls check box, to determine whether the time series animation control bar is automatically hidden from view, unless the cursor hovers over it.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: This option does not completely enable time series analysis. For detailed information on the data requirements for time series analysis in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget, see Enabling time series animation in an Interactive Bubble Graph widget.

Font formatting for the time series labels (the attribute header)

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the Time Analysis tab, select the Font Family, Font Size, and Color.
   
   Note: Some of the options may not be visible in the dialog box. To view these options, use the scroll bar to scroll down.
   
   These options are available only if the Enable time series analysis check box is selected.

3. To bold the labels, select the Bold check box.

4. To italicize the labels, select the Italic check box.

5. Click OK to save the changes.

Color, opacity, and size of time series animation control

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. Click the Time Analysis tab.
   
   Note: The following options are available only if the Enable time series analysis check box is selected.

3. To format the background of the control:

• Select a color from the Control background color palette.

• Select a number from the Control background opacity drop-down list to determine how opaque the background is (100% is a solid color, 0% is transparent).

4. To format the background of the Play button, select colors from the Button background colors palettes.

• If you specify two different colors, they are blended to create a gradient effect.

• If you specify the same color, the button background is displayed in a single color.

5. To format the background of the Play button when the button is highlighted, select a color from the Control highlight color palette. This color is displayed when the user hovers the cursor over the button.

6. From the Control size drop-down list, specify the size of the time series animation control.

7. Click OK to save the changes.

Change selection on mouse over

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the Selectors tab, you can change what is displayed in the selectable area when you hover the cursor over the area that you want to see. To do this, select the Change selection on mouse over option.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Allow the selection box (the lasso) to automatically update the targeted Grid/Graphs and panel stacks, if the widget is used as a selector

For example, when this option is enabled, an analyst can drag a selection box around two brand bubbles in the widget to automatically display those brands in the targeted Grid/Graph.

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. On the Selectors tab, select Trigger selector with lasso automatically.

3. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: This option does not enable the widget to be used as a selector. You must enable attributes or attribute elements in the Grid/Graph that contains the widget. For more information about this specific requirement, see About using an Interactive Bubble Graph widgets as a selector.

Whether to display the widget in scatter plot mode

In scatter plot mode, each bubble in the widget is the same size, and only two metrics are displayed: the X-axis and Y-axis. You can define the radius of the bubbles in the scatter plot, but it cannot be bigger than the maximum radius.

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

2. Click the Scatter Mode tab.

3. Do one of the following:

• To display the widget as a scatter plot, select the Scatter Plot Mode Only check box.

• Type the size of the scatter plot bubbles in the Scatter Plot Bubble Radius field. All bubbles in the widget are displayed in this size.

• To display the widget as a bubble graph, clear the Scatter Plot Mode Only check box.

4. Click OK to save the changes.

Enable or disable zooming and changing the metric displayed on an axis in the widget

By default, an analyst can zoom in to a specific area of the widget, or quickly change which metrics are displayed on which axis in the widget using the drop-down lists displayed on each axis. You can enable or disable these options.

1. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget.

2. Do one of the following:

• To enable zooming and changing the metric displayed on an axis using the drop-down lists, select Show Interactive Controls.

• To disable zooming and changing the metric displayed on an axis using the drop-down lists, select Hide Interactive Controls.

Apply formatting inherited from the widget's Grid/Graph to the widget

The following formatting options can be inherited from the widget's Grid/Graph:

•  

• Number formatting

• Font type, size, and color

• Background and border color of the widget

• Legend formatting, including legend position, legend background, and border color

• The maximum and minimum values that can be displayed in the graph

• The interval between tick marks on the axes of the graph

1. In Editable Mode, right-click the widget, then point to View Mode and select Graph View.

2. From the Format menu, select Graph. The Format: Graph dialog box opens.

3. Format the widget's Grid/Graph by selecting the appropriate options in the Format: Graph dialog box. For specific steps to format the widget's Grid/Graph, see the Advanced Reporting Guide.

4. Click OK to return to the widget.

5. In Flash Mode or Interactive Mode, right-click the widget and select Properties. The Interactive Bubble Graph dialog box opens.

6. Do one of the following:

• To apply formatting from the widget's Grid/Graph, select the Inherit grid formatting check box.

• To display the widget without inheriting formatting, clear the Inherit grid formatting check box.

7. Click OK to save the changes.