Original subtitles

In this section, we're now going to move across to our graphs.

So we're going to start to see how we can use our visualizations to create graphical views of our data.

Now we're going to be starting with the column graph, and you're going to find that the column graph

is great when you want to understand the magnitude difference between items.

So when you want to understand which item is highest or which item is smallest and how much bigger one

item is than the other, then you should be using a column or a bar graph.

So as I say, we're going to kick off with the column graph.

I'm going to actually create a new page for this.

So we're just going to add a new page and let's just call this our graph.

Okay, let's just collapse our filters and we'll get a nice big screen to work with again.

So as you become used to, we've got our visualizations up at the top and you'll see that this first

line is actually all around our column and you're just going to move that out of the way slightly.

So the top line there is actually all about our column and bar graphs.

Turn the first part of the section.

We're going to actually be looking at the different types of column and bar graphs that you can use.

You're going to find that this is one of the most effective graphs that you will be using in your reports.

So we're going to cover all the features that we can write.

So we're going to start off with the first column so you can see it's this one over here.

I'm going to select that.

Just click on Clustered column and again we get our placeholder and I'm just going to make that nice

and big.

So we've got a nice big graph to work with.

Now what you will see is that our wells have changed a bit, so we have an x axis, a y axis, Legends,

more multiples and tooltips.

Now, Microsoft have changed this a little bit with a user interface where this used to be that you

had a values so you would put your values.

Now they've changed it to say that you actually pop it into the y axis.

So what are you putting into the y axis?

But normally that would be the value that you're working with when you're working with a column graph.

So let's have a look at an example of this.

So we've already seen our manufacturer quite a bit.

So let's have a look at our manufacturer.

So let's say we're going to select our manufacturer and you can see by default it's placed it into the

x axis, which is good news.

That's where I'd want it and let's get ourselves value.

And now that's gone into our y axis.

So again, we've got a manufacturer, we've got some sales, and instead of seeing a table of data,

we're now looking at a graph of that data.

So once we've got our graph of data, as we've seen before, we do get our different formatting options.

So let's have a look across the formatting and let's start on the general side.

So we already know we've got our properties, change our size, size, height, width and positioning

of this.

I'm not going to go through this again.

You'll also see that we currently got our title, which is currently on, So if you wanted to change

this then you could actually just go in here, change your title.

And again, we've already seen how you can change your different text colors, your background color,

your alignment, maybe just put it in the middle and if you wanted to change your font styles.

So nothing different there.

And again, with our effects again, we can change the background color or border if we wanted to and

put shadows on if you wanted to do that type of thing.

Okay.

So you can see that this is very similar to what we had when we were working with our different tables

and on matrices.

So I'm going to move across the visual because this is where things are quite different for the formatting.

Now you can see that my x axis is on and my y axis is on.

I'll need both of these.

And again, you can see that I can change my values for my x axis.

Now this is particularly useful because when you've got graphs that have got more data, you might want

to see if you use a smaller font just to get a little bit more detail there.

Again, with your color, you're going to see that put your color on.

Now by default, Microsoft actually uses like a dark grey color often found that a black is better because

it still sticks out easier and you can see it better.

But there's just something for you for you to look at.

One of the things that we are going to cover later on in the course is something called themes.

So we're going to look at our views and we're going to cover these themes.

And what you can do is you can actually set up defaults that mean that the color can be defaulted to

a specific color, which in this case would be better to be black.

But as I said, we're going to cover that a little bit later on in the course.

Right.

Again, So if we just move down here, you got your x axis.

You can also see you go to title on at the moment.

So we just got the word manufacturer at the bottom could turn that off because we've already telling

people that this is sales by manufacturer here.

If we go to the Y axis a little bit different, you do have the ability to change a range.

Now you can see the moment we're starting at zero and we're going to the total.

Now, this normally makes sense when you're trying to understand how big an item is versus another item

by having the full range of values that you're using.

So we can see fabric is obviously the highest.

And north, when traded down here is the smallest, but sometimes you might want to change your range

and change this minimum and maximum values.

You can do that and you'll see that you've also got options such as logarithmic scale, which would

only be used in very specific graphs that you could that you're working with.

You also get the ability to change your values, how you want your values to be shown.

And again, you got your default fonts and you've got your detail colors as well.

I'm just going to make that black again.

Just does make it a little bit darker.

And again on this, you could change your display units.

I'm going to keep this to auto, though.

It works pretty well in terms of displaying my data at the moment.

And again, I've got my title and you can see it says some of sales there.

I wanted to turn that off.

Just gives me a little bit more space on my graph.

If we move down a little bit, you'll see that we do get access to our grid lines and you can see that

legend and small multiples currently is grayed out.

We are going to look at these options a little bit later in this lesson.

So we will revisit this and again, you'll see that we've got our horizontal, you've got your color,

you've got your width.

So if you wanted to change your grid lines and you could you can make this a little bit wider if you

wanted to, I tend to suggest that you do use like a light gray color.

You want to use something as your grid line that does not come through the graph itself, but just gives

people a reference point.

So you might want to use a like color for this.

Even a light blue might work or a light gray, normally pretty good ones.

Now what you do have down here is something called the Zoom slider.

And if we turn this on, what it does is it just allows you to be able to zoom into specific data.

Now, we've not got many values here, so this probably wouldn't make too much sense.

But if you could picture that you've got a graph with a lot of items and you're now showing items that

are further down and you've got smaller values, you may want to then just zoom into those values itself.

It's quite useful from that point of view when you've got quite a lot of items.

We're going to turn this off and I'm going to just leave you to experiment with that.

And again, you get the option with your columns.

What color do you want them to be?

And you can change the columns.

You could also say show all.

And if you want to make a specific column, a specific color, as you can see here, you could change

that and you can make it a specific color if you wanted to highlight that column.

At the moment, though, we're going to keep them all the same color and we're just going to turn that

off.

But it's quite useful.

Also, you do get a bit of ability to change the spacing on this.

If you wanted to change the spacing and you can experiment with this, see the differences as to what

it would make if you did want to change it.

Tend to find though, that the defaults work pretty well in terms of what you're working with.

So again, you can play with those.

Now one of the options that I did want to highlight was data labeled Data labels can be really useful

for helping your users understand the data that they're looking at, and it just gives a bit of nice

reference information.

Now, one suggestion is, is when you've got too much data, do not put data labels on.

It just really creates too much for the person to look at.

But in this situation here, we don't have too many data points, so data labels would actually work

quite well.

So we're going to turn those on.

So first of all, do you want to apply to all of the series in this case?

We do.

And you can see that our first part is the orientation.

Do we want them horizontal, which in this case is easier to read because we've got actually our column

if I turn this to vertical or do you think that that is harder to read?

So we're going to turn that back to horizontal and then you can also change the positioning.

So auto tends to work really well, but you could decide you wanted it on the inside end or you could

decide that you're inside base if you wanted them at the bottom.

But I think that the inside end actually works pretty well or just setting it to auto also works pretty

well.

You can then also say how you want these values to be displayed.

You can change colors and also the size of the font.

So if you do want to make this a little bit bigger than you could, you can also set some backgrounds

to this.

So if you wanted a background color, let's say, for example, let's turn that on.

And as you can see now, it's actually just created a nice gray background for us to use.

But you can change this around.

If you wanted to use a light blue or so, maybe a darker blue, and it just creates then a bit of a

background on this.

Also, you can decide on the transparency as to how dark or not you would want this.

I'm going to turn that off, but sometimes it can be useful to use.

So it's certainly suggested you just play around with it.

But at the moment those data labels don't look too bad, so I'm going to keep them as they are.

So I'm going to collapse that and we're going to just look.

Then the last part is your plot area background.

So this just allows you to be able to browse for an image.

If you wanted to put an image as your plot area background, which is this area behind here.

So if you wanted to put an image in there, you could say how you wanted to fit in the transparency.

So again, there's something I'm going to leave you to experiment with.

Now, Another couple of options that I'd like to look at is the ability to create a legend and also

a small multiples.

So let's go back to our world and you'll see that we've got a legend.

So I'm going to pop my region into legend.

I don't have too many.

Regions.

I've only got three, so it actually works quite well.

And what you're going to see now is I get a set per column for each of my regions.

Now, quite clearly from this, we can see straight away that North America is much higher in sales

versus Europe or Asia.

And one of the options you do get here is something called highlighting.

I talk about this a little bit more when when we look into our graphs, but further on in the course.

But what you can do is you can actually select a specific item here.

And what it does is actually highlights the data, can see that as I'm clicking on this, it's actually

highlighting those data points.

So highlighting is something that, as I said, we'll explore a little bit later on in the course as

well.

Something to look at.

Again, we're going to be looking at Legend in the next lesson a little bit more.

So I'm going to move on to the next one, which is actually something called small multiples.

So the small multiples, what it does is it actually creates me a graph for each of the items that are

in the small multiple.

So if we moved our region down into small multiples, you'll see now that I've actually now got a graph

for Asia, graph for Europe and a graph for North America.

So this is really useful when you want to see a separate graph for each of the items really easy to

use.

Show you another example of this.

What we can do is that we could go into a channel, drop that in there.

Channel's got four options.

So you can see we now get four different graphs showing us each of these.

So this is quite nice when you'd want to do comparisons.

So instead of doing the clustered graph when we've got channel in the legend, we could see it as a

small multiple.

So just something again for you to experiment with but can be quite useful.

Just remember as well, we do have some formatting options, so if we go back into visual and we go

into our small multiples because we're using small multiples, now, you can decide on the layout how

many rows and columns you would want.

So if you would want to increase that, what the padding is, the borders between them, the title and

the background.

So just some things that you can change there.

Also, if we go back, let's just pop our item back into the legend and you'll see in your formatting

as well that your legend now becomes available.

So we just click on that and you can see where do you want?

Your legend can decide in terms of positioning.

Top left tends to work quite well, but you may want to put it somewhere else.

What is your text fonts again?

Do you want a title for this?

And if so, you could change the title text as well.

So there we go.

There's some nice formatting options that we have for those.

We're going to conclude this lesson here.

We're going to continue with this in the next one.

I we'll see you there.