Work with Properties :: SAS(R) Visual Analytics 6.3: User's Guide

About Properties

The Properties tab lists the properties for the selected graph component. Components that have properties include graph elements, cells, axes, legends, and the entire graph. Properties enable you to control the overall appearance of your graph, from the graph’s background color to the tick value interval on the axis. Report designers can override some properties in their report.

The following sections provide more information about properties.

About Style Properties

The color schemes and visual attributes for a graph come from the active report theme, which is a named collection of style elements. Each style element contains attributes such as fill color, marker symbol, line style, font face, and many others. Each part of a graph element, such as a marker, a bar, a line, or a label, derives its visual attributes from a specific style element from the active report theme. Similarly, the attributes for axes and legends come from a style element.

The style elements are developed to produce effective graphics without changing the default settings. However, you can change the default settings by changing style properties on the Properties tab. When you specify a style property, such as a color or font style, you are changing the style element that is applied to the graph component.

The following display shows the available style elements for bar chart labels. The list of style elements is displayed when you click menu down arrow

beside the Data label font color drop-down list on the Properties tab.

Each color is shown in the list beside its style element. Automatic indicates the default value for the graph element. Automatic enables the graph element to cycle through a list of colors provided for group colors and multi-response colors.

Visual attributes that are referenced by a style element provide consistency within the report theme. If you later change the report theme, the graph element is compatible with the new theme. In addition, some of the properties that you specify can be overridden by report designers when they use your graph objects in their reports.

Custom Graph Properties

Custom graph properties determine features that affect all parts of the graph object.

Here are some changes that you can make on the Properties tab when the graph object is selected:

customize the data tips and show or hide missing data.
specify an overview axis for the graph. When you specify an overview axis, you can select which graph elements to include in the overview axis. For more information, see Create an Overview Axis.
specify how graph attributes are rotated for group data. For more information, see Understanding and Changing Attribute Rotation.
change certain appearance attributes of the graph, including border lines and the graph background.

Cell Properties

Cell properties determine features that affect the overall appearance of the cell. These include the background and border colors for the cell, which graph elements the cell contains, and the color scheme for overlaid graph elements.

To change the properties for a cell, select the cell in the graph object, and make your changes on the Properties tab.

Graph Element Properties

Graph element properties determine features that affect the appearance of the plots, charts, and maps in a graph. The types of properties that you see vary depending on the type of graph element that you are modifying. In general, you can specify colors, marker symbols, line attributes, and outline and fill colors.

To change the properties for a graph element, select the graph element, and make your changes on the Properties tab.

Legend Properties

By default, a legend always appears when the graph object contains two or more graph elements. You can remove graph elements from the legend. If you remove all graph elements, then the legend disappears from the graph object.

To change the properties for a legend, select the legend in the graph object, and make your changes on the Properties tab.

Here are some changes that you can make to the legend:

show or hide the border and specify its appearance.
specify the formatting and style for the title.
specify which graph elements are included in the legend. In the Display in legend section, select or clear graph elements.

Axis Properties

The types of properties that you see vary depending on the type of axis that you are modifying.

Here are the possible types:

Discrete: The axis contains independent data values rather than a range of numeric values. Each distinct value is represented by a tick mark. Discrete is the default axis type for character data. Some graph elements require a discrete axis. For example, bar charts use a discrete axis for the Category role.
Linear: The axis contains a linear range of numeric values. Linear is the default axis type for numeric data. Some graph elements require a linear axis. For example, bar charts use a linear axis for the Measure role.
Logarithmic: The axis contains a logarithmic range of values. The logarithmic axis type is not used as a default.

You might want a logarithmic axis type depending on the nature of the data. For example, suppose that your graph element shows growth data with a linear axis. Based on the values, you suspect that the growth rate is exponential. If the data contains a very large range of values (orders of magnitude apart), you can display the values on a logarithmic scale.

Note: The data range on a logarithmic axis must be positive.
Time: The axis contains a range of date, time, or date-time values.

To change the properties for an axis, select the axis in the graph object, and make your changes on the Properties tab.

Here are some changes that you can make to the axis:

reverse the axis order.
show or hide the axis elements, such as the axis line, tick marks, and grid lines.
change the appearance of tick marks, tick values, axis labels, and grid lines. You can also highlight the background.

Note: When a custom graph object is used in a report, if the data assigned to the graph object contains a very large quantity of data, tick values might not be displayed. The user can use the axis scroll bar to zoom in on a particular area of the graph to see the tick values.
merge two or more column axes or two or more row axes.
specify the axis range, including offsets and first and last ticks.
specify a secondary axis for a graph element. For example, you can use the left or the right Y axis for the Measure role of a bar chart.

Note: The secondary axis is changed at the graph element level. To specify a secondary axis, first, select the graph element. Then, in the Axes section of the Properties tab, select the axis that you want to use.

Create an Overview Axis

The overview axes that you create in the graph builder are similar to the overview axes that you create in the designer. In addition, you can do the following:

select specific graph elements from the main graph to show in the overview axis
select completely different graph elements from the main graph to show in the overview axis

To create an overview axis:

Drag and drop a graph element from the Graph Elements pane onto the canvas.

You can drag and drop another graph element to create an overlay. However, do not create a new cell for this additional graph element. You cannot create an overview axis when the graph object contains more than one cell.
Select the graph object.
On the Properties tab, select the Show overview axis check box.

The graph object displays the overview axis beneath the existing graph elements. By default, the existing graph elements are displayed in the overview axis, as shown in the following example:
To display different graph elements in the overview axis, do the following:
1. On the Properties tab, select Specify graph elements from Contents.
2. Drag and drop one or more graph elements from the Graph Elements pane onto the overview axis area of the canvas.
  
  The graph element names that you added are displayed in the Graph elements section on the Properties tab.
3. If you added more than one graph element to the overview axis area, you can change the order of the graph elements by dragging and dropping a graph element to a different position.

Understanding and Changing Attribute Rotation

When you apply a group role to your graph element, by default, the graph builder rotates through predefined style elements to determine how to present each unique group value. This type of rotation also occurs when multiple response roles are assigned to the graph element or when graph elements are overlaid.

When the graph element is rendered, the attributes for colors, line patterns, and marker symbols are rotated for the values in your group. Whether you change the attributes or keep the default attribute values, the manner in which the attributes are combined is determined by the attribute rotation priority.

To change the attribute rotation priority:

Select the graph object. For more information, see Select Components and Elements of a Graph Object.
On the Properties tab, select an option from Attribute rotation priority.

You have two options for the attribute rotation priority:

Rotate color only until all colors used	attributes such as marker symbols and line patterns are held constant while each color in the list is applied exhaustively to the graph element.
Rotate all attributes	each attribute rotates through its own list to generate a unique combination for each group value. Attributes include colors, marker symbols, line patterns, and so on.

For example, the following figure shows an example rotation for an age grouping. The dotted-line pattern is held constant while red, green, and blue colors are applied to the dotted lines for the consecutive age group values. If there are more group values, red, green, and blue colors are applied to the solid lines.

If you change the rotation pattern, and specify Rotate all attributes for the attribute rotation priority, the contrasting colors and line patterns are rotated at the same time.

A red dotted-line pattern is applied to the first group crossing. Then, a green solid-line pattern is applied to the second crossing, a blue dotted-line pattern is applied to the third crossing, and so on.

Work with Properties