Configuring the way in which graphs are displayed

To specify whether to display an area graph or a line graph

Whether a graph is displayed initially as a line or area graph is determined by the graph's default style setting in Library Explorer.


Example line graph	Example area graph

When editing a graph in Library Explorer, select Line or Area from the Default Style column in the list view to determine whether the graph is a line graph or an area graph by default. If you want to subsequently change a graph from a line to an area graph, or vice-versa, you can do this using the Graphs tab of the Histogram Report Properties dialog:

Select the Area radio button to display an area graph, in which the area graphed indicates the amounts being graphed, or select the Line radio button to display a line graph, in which a line indicates the amounts being graphed.

To specify the colours and line styles to use in the graph

If you are displaying an area graph, specify the way in which you want the graph to be displayed using the foreground colour, background colour and pattern selectors to the right of the Area radio button.
If you are displaying a line graph, specify the way in which you want lines to appear by clicking the field to the right of the Line radio button.
Alternatively, select the Use resource/cost centre/standard work appearance check box to display the graph using the defined appearance of the resource(s), cost centre(s) or standard work type being graphed. When graphing standard work, this check box only affects graphs that include a single type of standard work; graphs that include more than one type of standard work cannot display the appearance of multiple standard work types.

This check box has no effect if you are graphing task work rather than resource or cost centre information.

To specify whether the values from this graph should be included in the data grid that can be displayed at the bottom of each histogram row

If you are displaying a data grid, select the Include in data-grid check box to include the values from this graph in the data grid, or clear the check box to exclude them.

To specify whether this graph can be stacked with other graphs

Stacking graphs is useful when you have two or more graphs in the same histogram report. When graphs are not stacked, each graph is drawn from 0 on the vertical scale; when graphs are stacked, one graph is drawn on top of the other. This is illustrated below, where allocation is shown in green and over allocation is shown in red:


With no stacking, allocation peaks at 2, with over allocation of 1	With stacking, the over allocation of 1 is drawn on top of the allocation, with the graph peaking at 3

Select the Allow stacking check box if you want the graph to be able to appear on top of another graph, or clear the check box if you want it to appear on the same level. Stacking graphs takes up more space on the screen, but prevents graphs from obscuring one another. The way in which graphs are stacked depends on the stacking option you select on the Row tab of the Format Histogram dialog.

To apply a fixed scale multiplier to the graph

You can specify a fixed range to the y-axis of a histogram if required, using the Row tab of the Format Histogram dialog. For example, if the values in a histogram go up to 100,000, you could limit the y-axis range from 0 to 100, in which case the histogram values would be described as 'x 1000' in the axis and legend. Limiting the y-axis in this way often results in a neater histogram when larger figures are involved.

When you limit the y-axis, a suitable scale multiplier is chosen automatically for you if you select the Automatic radio button against the Scale multiplier field - for example, 'x 1000' or 'x 100'. However, you can select a fixed scale multiplier for each graph if you wish. If you want to do this, select the Fixed radio button against the Scale multiplier field and enter the scale multiplier you want to use in the field to the right.