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The Options menu of the graph edit window consists of the
following options:
- General...
- X Axis...
- Y Axis...
- Z Axis...
The Graph Options dialog box is used for changing the
overall appearance and operation of the graph. The Graph
Options dialog allows you to set:
- the graph type
- whether the graph redraws after recalculation
- whether to display legends
- whether to skew data series
- default font and colors for graph
- graph title text
- title display attributes
To set the Graph Options:
- Select General... from the graph window Options menu.
NExS displays the Graph Options dialog box as shown
in Figure 12.6.
- In the Graph Type area, click on a radio button to
choose the type of graph you wish to make. Keep in
mind, that with the current data ranges selected, you
may not be able to generate the desired graph type.
NExS displays an appropriate error message if it is
unable to create the desired graph type.
Certain graph types can be combined by setting the
graph type in the individual Data Set dialogs. For
example, this allows you to mix scatter, line, and
bar charts all on the same graph. Setting the type
from the Graph Options dialog forces the type on all
the contained data sets.
- The Redraw on Recalculation setting controls whether
this graph is automatically redrawn as the result of
changes in the spreadsheet.
- The Defer Redraw button controls whether changes made
from the options of the Graph Edit window
automatically cause the graph to redraw. This option
is generally not needed. It should be used when
making many changes to a very large graph on a
relatively slow system When the changes have been
made, do an explicit Redraw of the graph.
- Click on the selection button labeled Display Legend
to display a legend to the right of the graph. For
line graphs, the legend displays the line and marker
style for each data series along with the associated
legend text. For bar graphs or histograms, the
legend shows bar colors. For contour graphs, the
legend show colors and levels. Surface graphs have
no legend.
- Click on the selection button labeled Skew Data
to place the bars in a two or more bar graph data series side-by-side.
Disabling this option causes the
bars to be placed on top of each other. This option also works with
Line, Scatter, Hi Lo, Box, and Westinghouse graphs.
In these graphs, this option is useful for slightly separating
data points that may be obscuring each other.
- In the Title Text area type in the text title of your
graph. You may enter one or more lines of text for
the graph title. NExS displays the first line of
the graph title centered above the graph; subsequent
lines are left justified with the first line. You
can format the text using the following special
characters:
^ | Starting a line with the caret character will
center the line with respect to the previous line.
Otherwise normal left justification is used. |
{ | The left brace character begins a block of text. |
} | The right brace character ends a block of text.
Text blocks may contain other text blocks. Text
blocks are typically used when multiple characters must be
superscripted or subscripted. |
_ | The underscore causes the next character or text
block to be subscripted with respect to the preceding
character. |
^ | Inside a line, the caret causes the next
character or text block to be superscripted with respect to
the preceding character. |
\ | The backslash turns off the special properties of the
following character so it can be printed out. The
string \\ prints a single backslash. |
- The Title Font area lets you set set the font family,
style, size, and color for the Graph Title.
- Click OK to confirm your choices, dismiss the dialog
box, and redraw the graph. Click Apply to confirm
your choice, keep the dialog box open, and redraw the
graph. Click Cancel to dismiss the dialog box.
Figure 12.6: Graph Options Dialog Box
These dialog boxes are used to change the appearance of
the axes to be displayed. A large variety of options can
be defined for each axis.
To change Axis characteristics:
- Select the appropriate axis (e.g. X Axis...) from the
graph window Options menu. NExS displays the Axis
Options dialog box as shown in
Figure 12.7.
- Click on the selection button to labeled Auto Scale
if you want NExS to automatically define axis
scaling, based on its evaluation of the data to be
plotted. By default Auto Scale is on. Click this
button off to use the scale in the Min and Max entry
boxes.
- In the Min and Max areas, enter a low and high value
for the axis values. The axis will be scaled to
include these values, but with logical start and end
points. NExS ignores the maximum and minimum values
entered here if Auto Scale is enabled.
- Click on the selection button labeled Auto Ticks if
you want NExS to select the number of tick marks for
the axis. By default, Auto Ticks is on.
- In the Major and Minor areas, enter the number of
tick marks to be placed on the given axis. NExS
ignores this number if Auto Ticks is enabled. The
axis will have the specified number of major ticks
with corresponding labels and the specified number of
minor ticks between pairs of major ticks.
- Click on the selection button labeled Log Scale if
you want to plot the current coordinate of data on a
logarithmic scale, checking for data values less than
or equal to zero. Leave this button off if you want
NExS to plot data on a linear scale.
- Set the Ticks Out button to cause tick marks to point
away from the body of the graph. Otherwise, tick
marks will point inward towards the graph itself.
- Select Exploded Axis to have the axis and tick marks
displayed slightly away from the graph area itself.
- Set the Axis Color if you wish it to be a different
color than the default foreground color for this
graph.
- Click on the Grid Lines button to display grid lines
for this axis. These are drawn from each tick mark
on the axis across the entire extent of the other
axes. A cross-hatched grid can be drawn by
activating this option for both the X and the Y axes.
The color of this grid is controlled by the Grid
Color selection. It defaults to the foreground color
for this graph.
- In the Axis Label area type in the text for the axis
label. NExS centers the label along the axis,
outside the graph area. Multiple lines of text may
be entered. You can format the text using the
following special characters:
^ | Starting a line with a caret character will
center the line with respect to the previous line.
Otherwise normal left justification is used. |
{ | The left brace character begins a block of text. |
} | The right brace character ends a block of text.
Text blocks may contain other text blocks. Text
blocks are
typically used when multiple characters must be
superscripted or subscripted. |
_ | The underscore causes the next character or text
block to be subscripted with respect to the
preceding character. |
^ | Inside a line, a caret character causes the next
character or text block to be superscripted with
respect to the preceding character. |
\ | The backslash turns off the special properties of
the following character so it can be printed out. In
addition, The string \\ prints a single backslash. |
- Select the font family, style, size, and color for
the Axis Label using the selection boxes provided.
- Use the Tick Style section to define the font family,
style, size, and color for the tick marks and tick
labels.
- Click OK to confirm your choices, dismiss the dialog
box, and redraw the graph. Click Apply to confirm
your choices, keep the dialog box open, and redraw
the graph. Click Cancel to dismiss the dialog box.
Figure 12.7: X Axis Options Dialog Box
Next: 12.3 Using Existing Graphs
Up: 12.2 Graph Editor
Previous: 12.2.10 Rotate...
NExS User's Guide, Version 1.4.5
Grey Trout Software
11 April 1999