Display
Description
The display tab contains all properties that influence the general appearance of the Chart2D ActiveX object.
Surrounding area
The ‘surrounding area’ subtree contains all properties needed to control the appearance of the area surrounding the actual chart area. Those properties are the following:
Foreground color
The foreground color of the surrounding area is the default color of all objects drawn in the chart, for example the color of the axes and the axis annotation. The color of most objects in the chart can be overridden by setting the appropriate (foreground) color property. For example, to have most objects colored red, but the axes of the chart blue, set the surrounding area foreground color to red and the chart area foreground color to blue.
Background color
The background color of the surrounding area is the background color of the Chart2D ActiveX object. This color again behaves as the default background color of the complete object, which can be overridden by setting the background color of specific objects/areas in the object.
Background image
This property contains the filename of the background image to display in the surrounding area. Only .bmp image files are supported by the object.
Background image layout
This property specifies the layout of the background image. Valid values are “Centered”, “CropFitted”, “Fitted”, “Stretched”, “StretchedToHeight”, “StretchedToWidth” and “Tiled”.
You can use the ImageLayoutConstants set in Chart2DconstantsModule .
Background image transparent
This property specifies whether the bitmap is displayed transparently. If so, any transparent areas in the bitmap are filled with the surrounding area background color. To display the image transparently, set this option to 1. Otherwise, specify value 0.
Chart area
The chart area subtree contains all properties needed to control the appearance of the chart area. The settings you specify overrule the corresponding settings in the surrounding area subtree, but only for the actual chart area. So, for example, if you define a surrounding area background color of white and a chart area background color of green, the Chart2D ActiveX object will be a white rectangle, containing a smaller green rectangle. The properties that can be specified are the same as those of the surrounding area, plus the following:
Chart area border type
This property determines the type of border to draw around the chart area. Possible values are “3D In”, “3D Out”, “Bevel”, “Etched In”, “Etched Out”, “Frame In”, “Frame Out”, “None”, “Plain” and “Shadow”. Default is “None”, i.e. no border.
You can use the BorderTypeConstants set in Chart2DconstantsModule .
Chart area border width
With this property, the border width can be specified. Valid values are 1 to 20, the default is 1.
Margins
The margin subtree contains four properties, with which you can specify the margins around the chart area.
Left
The left margin of the surrounding area, measured in pixels. The default value is 0, resulting in the largest possible space available for the chart.
Right
The right margin of the surrounding area, measured in pixels. The default value is 0, resulting in the largest possible space available for the chart.
Top
The top margin of the surrounding area, measured in pixels. The default value is 0, resulting in the largest possible space available for the chart.
Bottom
The bottom margin of the surrounding area, measured in pixels. The default value is 0, resulting in the largest possible space available for the chart.
3D view depth
Some chart types can be displayed in a 3D-look, such as bar charts. The 3D view depth specifies the chart depth as a percentage of the chart width. The values that can be entered are from 0 to 500.
Elevation
This property specifies the elevation degree of the chart above the X-axis. Valid values are –45 to 45.
Rotation
This property defines the rotation degree of the chart to the right of the Y-axis. Valid values are –45 to 45.
Shading
This property defines the type of shading to be used in the 3D-like displaying of the chart. The possible values are “Color”, “Dithered” and “None”.
You can use the View3DShadingConstants set in Chart2DconstantsModule .
Misc. display settings
In the misc. display settings subtree, all other possible display-related properties can be set. The subtree contains the following properties:
Show box around plot area
If this property is set to 1, a box is shown around the area in which the chart is plotted. If set to 0 (the default value), no such box is shown.
Show chart horizontally
If this property is set to 1, the chart is shown horizontally, i.e. the X-axis and Y-axis are swapped. This can be quite useful with bar charts.
Show outlines
If set to 1, outlines (contours) are drawn around chart objects like bars, pie slices, etc. If set to 0 (the default value), no outlines are drawn.
Axis annotation font
This property determines the font that is used to display the annotation of all axes.
Axis title font
This property determines the font that is used to display the titles along the axes.
Click label subtree
The click label subtree contains properties that control the appearance of the little yellow label that is displayed when clicking somewhere in the chart. This label contains the data value of the point that is nearest to the point clicked.
Hide value label on click
If this property is set to 0 (the default), a yellow label is displayed in a chart if you click in the chart with the left mouse button. The label shows the Y-value of the point that is closest to the mouse pointer when the mouse is clicked.
Click label font
This property determines the font that is used to display the label that is shown when clicking the left mouse button in the chart.
Click label decimals
This property specifies the number of decimals to use when displaying the Y-value in the click label. The default is 6. Allowed values range from 0 to 20.
Show thousand separators
Setting this property to 1 has the effect that the values in the click label will display thousand separators (commas), if applicable.