Configure Your Visualization

Data

The Data menu is where you will define the building blocks of your chart, including what data you want to chart and how you want to group that data. Read on for a breakdown of all of the configurations available in this menu.

Data Selection

The main components you'll need to create your visualization are a Dimension and a Measure.

• Dimension: a field that orders, groups, or categorizes your date. The dimension is often shown on the x-axis of the chart, or as points on a map. You can also add additional dimensions to create levels of hierarchy for drilling in to the data.
• Measure: a numeric field or a count of rows associated with the selected dimension.

To get started, you'll want to first select the columns from your dataset that you'd like to chart, or select the type of chart you'd like to create. If you select a Dimension first, you'll notice small green dots next to the available charts based on the datatype of your selected dimension. If you select a Chart type first by clicking on one of the options, you'll see a Recommended Columns section populate in the Dimension dropdown.

Group Dimension Values

In this section, you can define the column by which you'd like to group your data. Grouping dimension values breaks out your data into segments based on the selected column.

Bar/Column Display Options (applies to Bar and Column charts only)

Note: For the sake of readability, this section will use the word "column," but the below applies to both bar and column chart displays.

You can use the Multi-Series Display Options section to define whether you'd like series to be grouped, stacked, or 100% stacked. 

Stacked column charts will display an aggregation of values in a dataset column. 100% stacked column charts show the ratio of values within a dataset column. Visually, all of the columns in a 100% stacked column chart will have the same height (or length, if you choose to display in bars) since the calculation is being done where the values in every dataset column combine to 100%.

Fig 1: Grouped	Fig 2: Stacked	Fig 3: 100% Stacked

You can also decide whether you'd like all of the columns to be displayed, or if you'd like to only display the first 10 results, for example.

A note on distributions in stacked/100% stacked column charts: 

• The portion of each column that is shaded a specific color is representative of the distribution of that value in the entire dataset, not its distribution within the subset of the data representing the value labeled on the visualization's dimension (e.g. x-axis).
• Selecting the "Group Remaining as Other" option means that, if we are only showing n unique values along the dimension (e.g. x-axis), we will add a final column that collects all of the remaining unique values on the dimension into a vertical "Other" column, also amounting to 100%.

Timeline Display Options (Charts with a date dimension)

For timeline charts, this menu section is where you can define whether you would like your data to be grouped by Year, Month, or Day.

Error Bars (Bar and Column charts only)

For bar and column charts with a numerical dimension, you can add error bars by defining a column that contains your Upper Bound and Lower Bound. You can also modify the color of your error bar in this menu section.

Axis

The Axis menu allows you to further configure your visualization, including setting the axis scale, sorting, and adding reference lines for key benchmarks.

Scale

To set custom axis bounds, select Custom and type in your Maximum and Minimum values.

To set a logarithmic scale for a timeline chart, check the Logarithmic scale checkbox. This option is best used when analyzing a large range of values.

NOTE: When a logarithmic scale is used on a timeline chart, the ability to have custom precision and displaying missing or null values as zero will be disabled. Negative numbers and/or zero will not be plotted correctly on a timeline chart with a log scale.

Chart Sorting

Select how you would like your chart to sort:

• By Value: numerically ascending or descending
• By Label: alphabetically ascending or descending

Reference Lines

Add reference lines along the y-axis of your chart by defining your reference line value and giving it a label and color. This is great for noting targets and other benchmarks directly on your chart.

Presentation

In this menu, you get to customize the look of your visualization by selecting colors, as well as updating the text labels for your visualization.

General

This is where you can update your visualization Title and Description. You can also uncheck the Show "View Source Data" link box if you would prefer not to surface a link to the underlying data below your visualization.

Color

Choose a color palette for your visualization, or create a custom color palette using the available color options.

Label

In this section, decide whether you want your dimension to be labeled.

Axis Titles

Use this section to set your horizontal and vertical axis titles.

Legends and Flyouts

Flyout Unit Label

Here, you can override the unit label that shows when hovering over your visualization by defining the Singular and Plural unit label you would like to display.

Annotations

When a timeline chart is used, you can add annotations to specific dates.

Legends

In this section, you can decide whether you want your legend to be visible on the visualization. Legends are automatically minimized and users must click on Show Legend for the legend to be expanded.