Task 6:  Refine the chart appearance

The chart includes labels that identify the data value each sector presents. A legend identifies which product line each sector represents. Though the legend includes useful information, it also takes up space and reduces the size of the pie, so you may have to make a trade-off. One possibility is to remove the legend and use sector labels to display the product line information. Using the sector labels instead of a legend is a better choice when report users cannot easily distinguish colors. Each data label displays category information and value information. In this case, the category information is the sector name and the value information is the total number of orders for the sector.

In the following example, the label identifies the motorcycles sector:

Motorcycles: 12,778

1	To modify the legend, choose Legend from the navigation list at the left.

2	Deselect Visible, as shown in Figure 14-15.

Figure 14-15  Legend section of Format Chart

3	Now you can add the legend information to the sector labels. Navigate to the Value Series formatting section, then choose Labels. Series Labels appears, as shown in Figure 14-16.

Figure 14-16  Series Labels formatting options

4	To add the section name to the label, ensure that Category Data appears in the drop-down list in the Values area, then choose Add. Category Data appears below Value Data in the list, as shown in Figure 14-17.

Figure 14-17  Adding Category Data to a label

You need to rearrange the label data, so the Category Data, which are the product line names, appear before the values in the chart labels. For example, you want the label to read Classic Cars, 35,582 instead of 35,582, Classic Cars.

5	Select Value Data, and choose Remove.

6	In the drop-down list, select Value Data, and choose Add, as shown in Figure 14-18.

Figure 14-18  Selecting Value Data from the drop-down list

Now the labels display information in the correct order, but you still need to change the label appearance. When you use more than one kind of information in a label, you can use a separator between the different sections. The default separator is a comma.

7	To change the separator, in Separator, type a colon (:) then a space, as shown in Figure 14-19.

Figure 14-19  Adding a label separator

To change the number format of the value part of the label, select Value Data in Values, then choose the Format Editor. In Edit Format, you can change the format of date-and-time or numerical data.

8	Select Standard, then change the value in Fraction Digits to 0, as shown in Figure 14-20.

Figure 14-20  Modifying the standard number format

Choose OK to close Edit Format.

9	To change the formatting attributes of the label text, choose Font Editor, as shown in Figure 14-21.

Figure 14-21  Opening Font Editor from Labels

Edit Font appears.

1	In Font, select Tahoma. Then, in Size, type 11, as shown in Figure 14-22.

Figure 14-22  Edit Font

2	Choose OK, and close Series Labels.

10	Now set a consistent length for the leader lines that connect the labels to the sectors. Figure 14-23 indicates where to find the leader line settings.

Figure 14-23  Editing leader lines and exploding sectors

1	In Leader Line Style, accept the default, Fixed Length. Change Leader Line Length to 20.

2	To separate the pie sectors so that a set amount appears between them, in Slice, set By Distance to 3.

To make the chart more useful to the report users, you can add interactive features, such as hyperlinks and highlighting. You can add interactive features to the chart area, legend, marker lines, and to other parts of the chart.

You have finished creating and formatting the chart.

11	To close the chart builder and see the chart element in the layout editor, choose Finish. Then, choose Preview to preview the chart.

The chart appears as shown in Figure 14-24. The completed chart shows the category names for each sector as well as the sector values. The size and organization of the chart make quick analysis possible, while still providing detailed data. For example, the user can immediately see that the largest pie sector is Classic Cars, which has 35,582 orders, followed by Vintage Cars, which has 22,933. The two car sectors are larger than all other sectors combined. Other product-line groups, such as Trains, do not contribute significant numbers of orders.

Figure 14-24  Completed tutorial chart