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
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.