CHARTSMITH
Quick Start Tutorial #3
This tutorial, the final tutorial, will take you from competent user to expert user. You could easily do without most of what is introduced here, but it is these features and techniques that will give total command of Chartsmith and allow you to produce the finest results with the utmost of ease.
- Setup for tutorial
Launch Chartsmith, and create a new document with a single Bar chart in it.
Working in the Data View Window.............................................................................
- All of the ways to add Series Columns
Each column in the Data View corresponds to a series in the chart. Chartsmith provides several ways to add a new series column to an existing chart, they are outlined below:
(1) Select a series column by clicking once in its label cell, and hit the Enter key on the numeric keypad. This will add a new series after the selected series.
(2) In the Data View submenu, choose Add Columns, which will add any number of new series columns after the currently selected series column in the Data View.
(3) Select a series column, then select Edit->Copy and Paste to duplicate this series column.
(4) Double click one of the icons in the Series Palette. This inserts a new series, of the type represented by the icon, after the selected series.
5) Click the Add Series Column button, which willl add one new series column.
- All of the ways to add Rows
(1) Select a row by clicking once in its label cell, and hit the Enter key on the numeric keypad.
(2) In the Data View submenu, choose Add Rows, which will add any number of new rows after the currently selected row in the Data View.
(3) Select a row, then select Edit->Copy and Paste to duplicate this row.
(4) Click the Add Row button , which will add one new row.
- Data Fill: generating data sequences
Chartsmith provides a utility for generating data sequences - the Data Fill utility. Select all rows, then bring up the Data Fill Panel using Data View-> Data Fill Panel menu item or the shortcut button on the Data View. The Data Fill Panel accepts a start value, a step value and other options. Try a start value of "January 2003", a step of 1 and linear step units. Then try a start value of "Q1 2001", or "11/3/1993" or "Monday".
- Date and duration data
While the typical data entered in the data cells of Chartsmith's Data View are numbers, Chartsmith supports the input of dates and durations as valid data values. Create a XY chart in Chartsmith, enter the following data into the X values: "Jan 3", "Jan 21", "Feb 16", " Feb 25" ; and then enter these numbers into the Y values: 43, 55, 58, 72.
What you will notice is that Chartsmith charts the data but the values along the X Axis are numeric, instead of being dates. This can be changed in the Grid Info Panel. So select the Grid, then click the Y Axis tab in the Grid Info Panel, then the Axis sub-panel in that tab. Here you can change the Axis Type to Date. If the resulting labels along the X Axis are not to your liking, go the the Labels sub-panel in the X Axis tab of the Grid Info Panel, and there you can alter the format of the X Axis labels.
If you want to use duration (i.e. relative time) values in the Data View, those are formatted as any combination of Weeks, Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds, with their respective labels from the set (WwDdHhMmSs), e.g. 5W 2h 32S. When duration data is used, the Axis Type must be set to Duration.
Working in the Chart Window....................................................................................
- Exporting images the easy way
Charts can be exported using the Chart -> Export Image menu item. But if you want a TIFF or PDF image, then there is an easier way to export images. Simply hold down the Option key, click anywhere in the chart and drag the image out of the Chart View. The resulting icon can be dropped into any application that accepts dragged TIFF images. Similarly, hold down the Command key to drag out a PDF image.
When dragging out TIFF images, the resolution of the image is set to what is specified within Chartsmith's preferences.
- Reordering series from within the chart
Series in a chart can be reordered by Control-dragging the series columns in the Data View. But if the Data View Window is not visible, there is a more convenient place to do this reordering. Hold down the Control key, click a series entry in the Legend and drag the entry to the position you would like the series to have.
- Reordering charts in the document
For documents with more than one chart in them, the order of the charts can be changed by holding down the Control key and then clicking and dragging any thumbnail in the Navigator.
- Color previewing - cool!
Want to see what your color choice looks like before you commit to it? Hold down the Option key as you drag a color swatch across your chart. The color previewing feature will display what would result if you were to drop the color swatch at the current location.
Miscellaneous Stuff....................................................................................
- Printing
Chartsmith's printing function, by default, will print the chart at its current size and in PDF format. But you have options. Choose to print your current document, and you'll see a popup in the print panel that probably reads "Copies & Pages". Select this popup and drag down to the "Chartsmith" item in the popup. Once selected, this item displays two options in printing: (1) a choice of PDF or TIFF format for the print job, and (2) an option to size the chart to precisely fit the paper to which you are printing.
The difference between PDF and TIFF printing is substantial. PDF printing provides a vector image to the printer which results in crisp lines, but loses any transparency effect in the chart. TIFF printing maintains any transparency you have in your chart, but is a raster image that does not have crisp lines. It is recommended that you use PDF unless you have transparency in your chart that is important to maintain.
- Preferences
Chartsmith Preferences, accessed via the Chartsmith-> Preferences.. menu item, allows you to customize some of the behavior of the application. Each segment of Preferences is noted here.
Change First Series Type
Choose Chartsmith- >Preferences to bring the Preferences panel forward. Choose the Series tab, and click on the button representing the chart type which you would like to be the first chart in all new documents. To save these changes, click the Set button.
These changes are put into effect immediately - every new document will contain one chart of the type you specify. Open a new document using the Document->New menu item to see your choices in action.
Preferred Templates for New Charts
Under Templates in the Preference panel, you may specify one template for each chart type. Once a template is specified for a given chart type, that template will be applied to any new charts that you create of that type. This is a powerful means to setup all your charts to look a certain way. For example, say you want to change the background color to white and hide the Chart Subtitle in every new chart. To do this create a chart with these attributes, and save the background and title attributes to a template. Then, in Preferences, set this template to be the New-Chart Template for all of the chart types.
Change Preferred Series Colors
As new series are added to a chart, the colors are determined from the series colors set in the Preference panel under Series Colors.
Fonts
The fonts used for Text and Balloon annotations, and the Data View data and labels are set within this segment of Preferences.
Auto-Update
Receive notice each time a new version of Chartsmith is released, and, at that time, have the option of downloading it or not.
Other Preferences
The Preference panel also has a Miscellaneous tab that allows you to choose whether a new document is opened at startup, whether backup documents are created, if transparency is allowed in any charts, whether the Data View window is visible when Chartsmith is not the active application, the JPEG compression rate for image exporting, the default resolution of images that are exported from Chartsmith, the depth of the Undo stack (i.e. how many sequential undo actions can be taken), and the image format in which charts are copied then pasted to other applications.
- Chart Notes
Associated with each chart are textual notes that are stored with the document. To edit these notes, click on the Chart Notes shortcut button, on the Chart Window, or click the Chart -> Show Chart Notes menu item. This will open a drawer on the Chart Window into which text can be submitted. As charts are selected with the document, the notes shown in the drawer are updated for the selected chart.
That concludes Tutorial #3. If you have proceeded through all three of the tutorials, congratulations! By doing so you have gotten the best introduction to the features and functions in Chartsmith. So good luck, and happy charting!
Copyright 2002-2003 by Blacksmith. All Rights Reserved.
Blacksmith is a division of Foundry, Inc.