Configure Charts

Designing and customizing your Apps is easy with the Data App workspace. Read on for a deep dive on App building so you can get started today.

This article covers:

• • What is a Data App?
• • How Do I Access the Properties Panel ?
• • Guide to the Properties Panel
• • FAQ

What is a Data App?

Data Apps are the end result of your data exploration - they are the reports and dashboards you create as you navigate your data.

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How Do I Access the Properties Panel?

Select any visualization (i.e., chart) in a Data App and click Properties on the toolbar. Or, click the Properties button on the top right of your screen.

Guide to the Properties Panel

Located on the right, this panel is used to configure charts in an App. There are two tabs:

1. Configure Tab
2. Format Tab

1. Configure Tab

The configure tab is where you select and sort your data.

1. Dimension
2. Measures
3. Sort By

1.1 Dimension

Dimensions are a way to categorize data. In the Properties panel, use the dropdown to select a column. The Aggregate option will group your data in "bins." For example, with "Date" selected, all records with the same date are grouped, and the summary of their measurement (i.e., Profit or Gross Sales) is plotted.

Aggregate is the default configuration, uncheck the box to remove this and plot each data point individually.

1.2 Measurements

Use the first dropdown (left) to select the type of summary, and use the second dropdown to select a column.

You could reorder measurements by clicking and holding the drag bar (to the left).

1.3 Sort By

Use the first dropdown to select Dimension or Measurement. Use the second dropdown to pick the sorting order; Ascending or Descending.

2. Format Tab

Personalize chart styles by choosing how to color charts and what type of chart to display. Combo charts allow you to pick from either a bar or line chart for each measurement that you add.

The Format tab is where you can personalize charts. Format anything from:

1. Chart Title
2. Legend
3. Defaults
4. Options (bar charts)
5. Scorecard Label (donut charts)
6. Measures
7. Measure Axis
8. Dimension Axis
9. Value Labels
10. Group Interactions
    

2.1 Chart Titles

There are five options to customize Chart Titles.

Title text box.

Use the text box to type in a custom chart title. Or, type a new title in the chart area in the Data App workspace.

Color palette.

Click on the color palette button to open the palette. You can select from five preset colors or use the palette to pick a custom color of your choice. Click the Reset to Theme button to go back to the default colors.

Font style, size, and weight.

Use the individual dropdowns to select a font style, font size, and font weight.

2.2 Legend

Use the first dropdown to select Placement. There are four options:

1. Top
2. Left
3. Right
4. Bottom

Use the second dropdown to choose from the Dot or Square style. Uncheck the box to remove chart Legends.

2.3 Defaults

Use Defaults to customize chart colors (i.e., bars and lines). Use the first dropdown to select how to color; there are four options:

1. Measure Label
2. Measure Order
3. Value
4. Dimension Label
5. Dimension Order

Note: The Measure Label and Dimension Label options use the colors assigned to data labels and therefore cannot be edited.

Use the second dropdown to select from color themes or custom colors. There are four themes:

1. Toric Bright
2. Sunset
3. Aurora
4. Single Hue

Note: You could use the color palette in the Single Hue option to choose a custom color.

2.4 Options (bar charts)

Drag the slider left to reduce the size of a bar, or drag the slider to the right to make bars bigger.

2.5 Scorecard Label

Add a summary in the center of your donut chart.

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Format date values in Scorecards. Select from a list of options or enter a custom format.

When typing a custom format, you will need to use the following format:

1. yy: year
2. MM: months
3. dd: days
4. EE: week day
5. HH: Hours
6. mm: Minutes
7. ss: Seconds

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2.6 Measures

Use the textbox to enter a custom label to Measures in your chart, and use the second textbox to enter a line width. Select a Line Pattern with the dropdown; there are four options:

1. Solid
2. Dashed
3. Dotted
4. Dash-Dot

Note: You may notice many Measures; one is created for each you add to a chart. You could control the styling for each Measure.

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2.7 Measure axis

Here you have complete control to scale the measures axis (i.e., y-axis in a line chart). Use each textbox to enter the Min, and Max values. Use the Tick textbox to enter the number of ticks displayed in a chart. The scale will auto-calculate based on the number of ticks you choose.

You could format the numbers on the Measure axis with the Scale Units dropdown. The default option is Auto; which will detect the range of values and set the number formatting that best matches the data. You could override the Auto option by clicking on the dropdown and selecting the format you desire (i.e., thousands, millions, etc...).

Type the number of decimal places in the Scale Decimal Places textbox.

Enter a custom axis title in the Axis Title textbox.

2.8 Dimension axis

The axis is shown by default. Uncheck the box to remove the dimension axis from a chart.

Enter a custom axis title in the Axis Title textbox.

2.9 🆕 Value Labels

Check the Value Labels category option to add data labels on charts. Use the Position dropdown to place the labels outside or inside data points. Use the unit dropdown to format the value and the textbox to enter the number of decimal places to display.

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2.10 Group Interactions

There are two options in the Group Interactions section.

1. ‍Cross-highlighting
2. Cross-filtering

Cross-highlighting.

Select this option from the dropdown to highlight charts and tables based on the data selection from other charts.

Note: Cross-highlighting is the default on all charts. It is possible to set a different data interaction behavior for each chart.

Cross-filtering.

Select the Cross-filtering option. Clicking on data in a chart will filter a chart according to selection across all charts.

Note: Interactions are selected by default. Uncheck the box to remove this option and keep charts static.

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Check out the links below for related articles: 

• Configure Tables
• Chart Types
• What is a Data App?
• Number Formatting
• FAQ About Visualizations