Data Analysis and Reporting with Intelligence Clients

Area Charts

Area charts are essentially bar charts with the discontinuous breaks removed along the horizontal axis. Data is not broken into discrete bars but appears in a continuous ebb and flow as defined against the Y-axis. Consequently, area charts are particularly useful for emphasizing the magnitude of change over time. In addition, area charts can be used for the same purposes as bar charts.

Because area charts do not break data along the horizontal axis, they are most useful for charting three dimensions of data. The Z-Categories pane should be used to either project data into a third spatial dimension, or to stack two categories of data in a stacked area chart.

Creating an Area Chart

To create an area chart:

Select Area from the Chart drop-down list.
Drag a value item from the Catalog pane to the Y-Facts pane in Outliner.
Drag a label item from the Catalog pane to the X-Categories and Z-Categories panes in Outliner.
Select Legend On Z from the Legend drop-down list.

Setting the legend on the Z-axis properly distributes color.

The following is an example of an area chart.

Creating a Stacked Area Chart

To create a stacked area chart:

Select Stacked Area from the Chart drop-down list.
Drag a value from the Catalog pane to the Z-Categories pane in Outliner.

The following is an example of a stacked area chart.