Graph Appearance

The Appearance dialog box of a graph enables you to change the graph's title and appearance. This section provide details on how to change a graph's appearance by using the dialog box.

To change the appearance of a graph:

  1. Open the Appearance dialog box. On the View tab, click Set Graph Appearance.

  2. See the following for the description of the user interface elements.

    UI Element Description
    General tab
    Title section

    Enables you to change the titles of the graph, the y-axis, or the x-axis.

    • : Change the title's font or color.
    • Reset Titles: Restore the original titles.

    Note: For a pie chart, you can only change the graph title.
    Layout section

    • Use source graph style: Available for composite graphs only. It controls whether or not to apply the source graph layout related settings to the composite graph, including layout (line, area, or column), mark, and smooth line.

      If this option is enabled, the three layout settings below are disabled, and every change to the source graph layout will be applied accordingly to the composite graph.

    • Default Layout: Select a layout that the graph is by default displayed in.
    • Stacked/Tiled: Select how groups of values are displayed, stacked or tiled. Available for line, column, and area layouts.
    • Smooth Line: Whether or not to enable the smoothed line layout. Available only for line and area charts.
    Color

    Color Theme: Select a color theme for the graph. Groups in the graph will be automatically displayed in different colors under the color theme. If the graph has more than 6 groups, some groups will share the same colors.

    Group Color: Select any colors for the groups in the graph. If it is a composite graph, select any colors for the source graphs and the percentage line in the composite graph. If it is a Test Execution - Planned vs. Actual graph, select any colors for the Plan and Actual lines. The group or source graph color settings override the color theme setting.

    Outer Color: Select a color for the area outside the graph.

    Inner Color: Select a color for the inner part of the graph.

    Auxiliary: Select colors for positive and negative values in the auxiliary line. Available only when auxiliary line is enabled. For details, see Auxiliary line.

    Note: For a pie chart, you can only set the outer color in ALM 15.5.
    Opacity

    Available only for composite graphs

    Set the opacity for the primary graph and non-primary graphs in a composite graph.

    Available only for composite graphs.
    Others

    Not available for pie charts

    Legend Position: Select where the graph legend is displayed.

    X-axis label Direction: Select a text direction for the x-axis label.

    Date Format: Select a format for the dates in the x-aixs. Available only for graphs whose x-axis values are dates, such as progress and trend graphs.
    Column Parameters

    Available only for bar charts

    Visible marks: Whether or not to display marks for each bar. A mark can be number or text.

    Marks style: This options works only when Visible marks is enabled. Select one of the following styles:

    • Total value: Displays the total number of items in all groups of a bar. Not available for composite graphs.
    • Each column (value): Displays the number of items in each group of a bar. If it is a composite graph, it displays the number of all eligible items in each source graph. For details about eligible items, see Composite Graph Data Range.
    • Each column (text): Displays the group-by field value of each group. For example, if the graph is grouped by status, the marks for a bar could be "new", "in progress", and "fixed". If it is a composite graph, it displays the name of each source graph.

    Marks position: This options works only when Visible marks is enabled. Select where the marks are displayed: on the top, at the bottom, or in the middle of the bar.
    Data Alignment tab

    Available only for composite graphs that contain source graphs whose x-axis values are dates
    Align by time unit

    Compare graph data within the same time unit, regardless of their actual dates. This options allows you to compare a graph of one period (e.g. Week 1) with the same period (e.g. Week 1) from other graphs, even when the period may refer to different days for the graphs. The period can be day, week, month, or year.

    X-axis Label: Define how the x-axis values are prefixed with. For example, if you enter “Phase”, the x-axis values are "Phase-1", "Phase-2", and so on.

    If you want to change the time unit, set the graph’s time resolution in the Configuration tab. For details, see How to configure composite graphs.

    X-axis Offset: Move a graph horizontally to adjust where its start point is aligned with other graphs. Click – to move the graph to the left. Click + to move the graph to the right.
    Align by actual date Compare graph data based on their actual dates. The x-axis values are the combination of the periods from all graphs. This options allows you to compare graph data of the same date.

  1. (Optional) Minimize the Appearance dialog box to preview your settings.

    Some settings do not support preview. You should save the settings to see the effect.

    Click the Back to Appearance icon in the bottom-right corner to continue the setting.

  2. Click OK to save and apply your settings.

UI Element

Description
Titles tab

Enables you to change the titles of the graph, the y-axis, or the x-axis.

Font. Enables you to change a title's font or color.

Reset Titles. Enables you to restore the original titles.

Note: For a pie chart, you can only change the title of the graph.
Appearance tab

Enables you to set the default format of your graph, modify the orientation of the labels at the base of the graph (for a bar chart and a line chart only), determine the format in which dates are displayed on the x-axis, display the graph with a 3D effect, or change the colors of the various components in your graph.
Bar Parameters tab

In bar charts, enables you to specify whether you want the values for each bar to be displayed. You can also adjust the bar width. If you specify that the values of each bar are to be displayed, you can change the data that is displayed for each bar, or its position relative to the bar.
Line Parameters tab

In line charts, enables you to specify whether you want the line frame to be displayed.

See also: