Bubble Series

Bubble series have three data values per series element - the first two position the series element along the X and Y axes, and the third determines the size of the graphical element, i.e. the bubble, displayed at this position. Bubble series may be mixed with XY, Histogram and Scatter series.

Bubble series accept dragged colors to set the fill color or line color. Other attributes of a Bubble series may be changed through the Bubble Series Inspector.


Bubble Series Inspector

When a Bubble series is selected in the chart, the Inspector displays the controls that are used to set its attributes.  The Bubble Series Inspector contains a tab view with three tabs: Style, Labels, and Shared.  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 outlining the bubbles.

¥ Bubble Shape
Sets the style of the bubble to square or circular.

¥ Fill Color
Sets the fill color of the bubbles.

¥ 
Image
A Bubble series can contain an image. The image is set by dragging an image file into a Bubble series or by using the Set.. button on the Inspector.

 

Set .. - Sets the image for the Bubble series through an open panel.

Clear - Clears any image currently in the series.

Image Only - Turns off the drawing of the Bubble frame, and only shows the image. This button has no effect on drawing if there is no image for the series.

Keep Aspect
- Sets the image to maintain its width to height ratio, rather than filling the bounds of the bubble. This button has no effect on drawing if there is no image for the series.

¥ Point Marker
Sets the graphic used to mark the data (X,Y) point. Useful when an unbalanced or nonsymmetrical image is being used.

¥ 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 three series element values.

¥ Label Position
Label positioning options are relative to the bubble.  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.


Shared Tab

These attributes are common to all Bubble series in the chart. Changing the value for the selected Bubble series changes the value for all other Bubble series in the chart.

¥ Z-Scale
Sets the scale by which the bubbles are sized.

 

Independent - In this mode, the bubbles are sized relative to one another based on their area. That is if one bubble has a Z value of 2 and another has a Z value of 4, then the first will have half the area of the second. The absolute size of the bubbles can be altered using the slider, while maintaining the relative areas of all bubbles.

X-Axis - In this mode, the bubbles are sized based on the scale provided by the X-Axis.

Y-Axis - In this mode, the bubbles are sized based on the scale provided by the Y-Axis.