Within the Chart Properties is a [Color] button. This button is useful for displaying the values of a Measure by category and assigning colors to those categories.

Contents

• For Dimensions
  • Select a Chart Color
  • Color Themes
    • Assign Palette
    • Pick Screen Color
• For Measures
  • Edit Color Options for Measures
  • Color Themes
  • Stepped Color
  • Reversed
  • Range
  • Use Full Color Range
• Chart Effects
  • Borders
  • Markers
  • Halos

For Dimensions

As an example, the chart below shows Card Type in Columns and Profit in Rows. By dragging Product Category to Color, we now see the Profit columns in the chart divided by Product Category. Each Product Category has its own color as indicated in the Legend which displays underneath the Chart Properties Deck.

The chart below shows Ship Method in Columns with Freight and Profit in Rows. By dragging Territory to Color the Freight and Profit charts display the bars segmented by the Territory.

Select a Chart Color

It is possible to change the color of items in a Chart by clicking the [Color] button.

1. Drag Card Type to Columns.

2. Drag Profit to Rows.

3. Click the [Color] button in the Chart Properties deck.

4. Once the Style Picker is clicked, a dialog appears that allows choosing a color via swatch, HSV, HSL, RGB or CMYK values. Choose a new color and Click [OK].

5. The color in the chart is replaced with your selection.

Color Themes

Assign Palette

When Dimensions are dropped onto Color in the Chart Properties, it is possible to select from a variety of Color Themes. Color Themes are preconfigured selections of colors for representing the components of Dimensions.

To choose a Color Theme:

1. Drag a Dimension onto [Color] in Chart Properties

2. Click the [Color] button

3. A dialog appears. The left side lists all of the Dimension components and their colors.

4. Choose a different Color Theme from the list in the dropdown at the top right of the dialog.

5. Click [Assign Palette] to see how the Dimension components will be assigned their colors on the left side of the dialog.

6. Click [Apply] to view your Color Theme in the view, and click [OK] to save.

Using the technique of setting the color for a specific measure, you can change the color of individual measures in a Combination Chart via the [Chart Properties > All] accordion so that one of the colors stands out.

In the [Edit Colors] dialog, click a measure name on the left to select it, then browse through the various themes and click on the color you want to use for that measure. Click [Apply] to see your color in the chart and [OK] to save it.

Pick a Screen Color

In the Edit Colors dialog, the Pick Screen Color button lets you pick colors from anywhere on your desktop or on the web. Initially, the Pick Screen Color button is disabled until you select an item in the Select Data Item pane. 
 
To use this option

1. Open the Edit Colors dialog. Follow steps 1 to 3 from the above procedure. 
2. Click an item from the Select Data Item pane.
   
3. Click Pick Screen Color. The mouse cursor changes into an eye dropper. 
   
4. Hover the eye dropper on the color you want to pick and click the mouse. Visual Analytics assigns the color to the selected item in the list. 
   
5. Click Apply and close the dialog.

For Measures

When a measure is placed in the Color Deck, Visual Analytics assigns a color theme with values ranging from low to high color intensity. It applies an Automatic color theme that can be sequential or diverging depending on the measure values. Visual Analytics applies a sequential theme of one color when values are either all positive or all negative. When the measure has both positive and negative values, then it applies a diverging color theme represented by two colors. A diverging color theme is a combination of two different colors and represents dark colors at each end and light colors at the midpoint. By default, Visual Analytics associates negative values with red and positive values with blue, and the color intensity varies from highest to lowest.

Edit Color Options for Measures

The following options are available in the Edit Colors dialog box. To edit a theme, click Color Deck > Edit Color.

Color Themes

Visual Analytics offers three types of color themes: sequential, diverging, custom. You can create a custom theme by choosing a custom theme from the drop-down list or modifying the colors of the sequential and diverging themes.

To create a custom theme

1. Under Color Theme, click to change the color.
2. Modify the minimum and maximum colors.
3. Click OK. The default theme changes to a custom theme in the drop-down.
   

Stepped Color 

When you want to group values in different buckets, you can use Stepped Color. According to the stepped color value that you set, Visual Analytics groups values in uniform buckets and assigns colors to them. In the following example, we want to group students who scored between 35 and 95 in a range of 15 marks each. Therefore, we set the stepped value as 4. Visual Analytics creates 4 color buckets and puts students who have scored between 35 to 50 in the first bucket. In the second bucket, it puts students who have scored between 51- 65. The third bucket contains students who have scored between 66- 80, and the last bucket contains students whose scores are between 81- 95.

Reversed

Reversing sequential color themes reverses the color intensity from the highest value to the lowest value. Reversing diverging color themes swaps the sequential colors on both sides.

Range

You can specify a minimum and maximum value for the color range. For diverging color themes, you can also specify a center point. In the following example where we are using a diverging color theme, on setting -500 as the minimum value and 2500 as the center. Visual Analytics displays values that are equal or below -500 in the same color intensity. Values of -499 to 2500 are in a decreasing color intensity whereas values from 2500 to 19,454 are in an increasing color intensity.

Use Full Color Range 

When using diverging color themes, you can choose Use Full Color Range. Visual Analytics assigns a full-color intensity to both ends depending on the values. In the following example, the values are ranging from -1000 to 19,454. If “Use Full Color Range" is unchecked, Visual Analytics distributes the color gradient from -19,454 to 19,454. Therefore, -1000 gets associated with a very light shade of red. With this color gradient, you can not only differentiate between the positive and negative values but also how negative or positive the value is because both ends of the scale are calculated based off Max(ABS(-1000), ABS(19454)). If "Use Full Color Range" is checked, then the gradient scale is generated differently. Visual Analytics assigns the highest red intensity to -1000 and the highest green intensity to 19454.
 

Change Orientation

By default, when you drag a measure to color, ADS displays it horizontally. Now, you can choose Vertical orientation. Click on the Measure Deck and choose Show Vertical to change it.

Chart Effects

You can add effects to your plotted data by applying borders, markers, and halos.

Borders

Borders enhance your charts by making segments stand out and are often useful for visualizing clustered data. To apply borders, on the Chart Properties Deck > click Color Deck > Effects > Border > choose a border color. You cannot apply borders to Table and Line Charts, and Radar Chart with Line and Dot display styles.

Markers

Markers show and hide data points on the Line and Area charts and Radar charts with Line and Area display styles. For a Line chart, if you have enabled data labels on the toolbar, then Visual Analytics automatically displays data points while building these charts. If the data labels are disabled, then data points do not appear in the chart view. In this case, you can enable markers from the Chart Properties Deck > click Color Deck > Effects > Markers. Clicking  displays data points in the chart view while clicking  hides data points from the chart view. When you build a Radar chart, Visual Analytics displays data points even if data labels are disabled. To hide data labels from the chart view, go to Chart Properties Deck > click Color Deck > Effects > Markers > click .

Halos

Halos surround data with solid contrasting colors making the data more visible on maps. To apply halos, on the Chart Properties Deck > click Color Deck > Effects > Halos > choose a halo color.
On a Symbol Map, halos can be viewed only when the opacity is set to over 80%.