XY Series

A XY series has two data points per series element - one that positions the element along the X axis, and the other that positions the element along the Y axis. XY series may be mixed with Scatter, Histogram or Bubble series. XY Series accept dragged colors to set the marker color and the line color . Other attributes of an XY series may be changed through the XY Series Inspector.


XY Series Inspector

When a XY series is selected in the chart, the Inspector displays the controls that are used to set its attributes.  The XY Series Inspector contains a tab view with three tabs: Style, Labels, and Trends.  The contents of each of those tabs are addressed separately below.


Style Tab

The attributes set with controls found in the tab labeled ÒStyleÓ apply only to the currently selected series. Changing the values of these attributes does not affect any of the other series in the chart unless they are also selected.

¥ Line Width and Color
The Line Width slider and the color well set the width and color of the lines connecting the data points in an XY series.

¥ Line Type
Sets the line style or dash pattern used for lines connecting data points.

¥  Marker Style
Sets the graphic used to mark data points.

¥ Marker Size
Sets the size of the graphic used to mark data points.

¥ Marker Color
The color well sets the fill color of the markers used for data points.

¥ Display series on Y1 / Y2 Axis
Associates the series with either the Y1 or Y2 axis (the axis must be active in order to associate a series to it). The data range of the associated axis will determine how the series is drawn.

 

Labels Tab
 
The contents of this tab are used to control the content, color, position and rotation of the series labels.

¥ Labels
A switch titled ÒLabelsÓ at the top of the tab view panel will enable or disable the series labels for the selected series.

¥ Label Content
The content of the data labels is set to:
Data - numeric labels
Text - textual labels
Text and Data - both textual and numeric values in the labels

The textual labels contain the row labels as they have been provided in the Data View. The numeric labels are the series element values.

¥ Label Position
Label positioning options are relative to the data marker, if it is displayed, or relative to the data element point if they are not displayed.  Series labels can be double-  clicked to deep-select them, then dragged freely across the chart. When this is done, the label position is set to ÒCustomÓ.

¥ Label Color
The Label Color sets the display color of series labels.

¥ Label Rotation
The Rotation controls set the rotation of all of the series labels.
 


Trends Tab

The contents of the Trends tab is used to add trend lines to the selected series. Any number of trends can be added, each with their own set of attributes, but all associated with the data of the selected series.

¥ Add Trend / Delete Trend
At the bottom of the trends tab are two buttons used to add and delete trends.  Initially only the Add Trend button is enabled.  When the Add Trend button is clicked, a single trend is added.  For each added trend, an item is added to the popup button that is toward the top of the Trends tab.  This popup button displays the trend label for each of the trends that have been added, and is used to select a trend.

To delete a trend, select the trend from the list of trends in the popup button toward the top of the Trends tab, then click the Delete Trend button.

¥ Type
The mathematical model for a given trend can be set using the Type popup button.  If the trend type has a modifier value, the control for that value is displayed to the right of the trend type popup.  For example, the Polynomial trend type has an Order modifier, and the Moving Average trend type has a Period modifier.

¥ Active
The Active switch is used to activate and deactivate a trend.  When a trend is deactivated, it is not displayed in the chart and is not referenced in the chart legend.

¥ Show Entry in Legend
This switch is used to include or exclude an entry that represents the trend from the chart legend. 

¥ Draw in front of series
Allows you to set the trend to draw in front of or in back of the associated seris. 

¥ Label
The default label for a trend is Ò<Series Name>(Trend #)Ó.  This label can be modified with the Label textfield.  This label is used to identify the trend in the chart legend, and is also used to identify the trend in the trends popup toward the top of the Trends tab.  

¥ Line Width and Color
Used to set the width and color of the trend line. 

¥ Equation Annotation
You can drag a textual annotation from this icon well that will display the mathematical equation computed for the associated trend. 

 

  Error Bars Tab

The ErrorBars tab is used to turn error bars off and on for a given series, and to change the error barsÕ attributes. 

¥ Error Bars PopUp and Switch
The combination of the popup and switch are used to do two things: activate/deactivate the error bars that are measured by the X or Y Axis, and to select the error bars measured by a given axis so that the attributes of those error bars are loaded into the other controls in this tab.

¥ Mode
A set of two radio buttons used to choose whether the positive and negative error bars will be symmetrical - i.e. based on the same mathematical model - or will have a different model for the positive error bars than the negative error bars.

¥ Type
If the Mode is symmetrical, meaning that both the negative and positive error bars are based on the same mathematical model, then a single popup menu will be displayed from which you may set the mathematical model. If the Mode is not symmetrical, you will see two popup buttons used to select the model used to calculate the positive and negative error bars. The options for the mathematical models, or type, are as follows:  

 

Percentage Ð Extends error bars above and/or below series element a distance that is a percentage of that series elementÕs value.  The percentage is set using the modifier field to the right of the popup.

Fixed - Extends error bars above and/or below each series element a distance whose magnitude is set to a fixed amount. The fixed value is set using the modifier field to the right of the popup.

Standard Deviation - Extends error bars above and/or below the mean of the series by some number of standard deviations, as set in the modifier field to the right of the popup.  Standard deviation is calculated as:

     Std_Dev = sqrt( sum(D) / N-1 ), where

     D = square of a valueÕs difference from the mean,

     Sum(D) = sum of all D over the value set

     N = number of values.


Standard Error - Extends error bars above and/or below each series element a distance that is calculated as:

           Std_Dev / sqrt( N ), where Std_Dev and N are defined above.


Variable - Provides an extra data subcolumn in the Data View into which variable error values may be entered. These values serve as the magnitude of the error bars. The extra subcolumn is labeled "Error" if the Mode is symmetric, and, otherwise, the extra subcolumns are labeled "+ Error" and/or "- Error".

 

¥ Bar attributes
Sets the width and color attributes of the error bars.

¥ Markers
By default Error Bars display no marker at the top and bottom of the bar. However, a marker can be added, and three styles are available. The size of the marker can be set here too.