About Graphs

Definition: Graphs

Graphs enable you to create visual representations of your financial data. You can use graphs to view your financial data from different perspectives, and you can format and print graphs for use in presentations.

Types of graphs

Financial Analyzer provides a variety of graph types that enable you to represent data in many different ways. For example, some graphs let you emphasize trends over time while other graphs let you show part-to-whole relationships. The following list describes and shows samples of Financial Analyzer's basic graph types.

Graph Type	Typical Use	Sample
Line Graph	Shows trends over time and emphasizes rates of change
Vertical Bar Graph	Like a horizontal bar graph, compares data associated with different dimension values
Horizontal Bar Graph	Like a vertical bar graph, compares data associated with different dimension values
Bar-Line Graph	Shows relationships between data measured in different units
Area Graph	Shows trends and emphasizes degrees of change
Pie Graph	Shows part-to-whole relationships
Scatter Graph	Shows the relationship between two variables

Graph objects

Graphs enable you view and format financial data based on the financial data items, dimensions, and dimension values that are defined in your personal database. Before you can create a graph, your personal database must contain the required database objects. Administrators typically define database objects and distribute them to users.

Graph window

The graph window contains various elements that enable you to manipulate a graph's layout and format.

The following illustration shows a vertical bar graph with elements of the graph window labeled.

The following table describes each labeled element.

Element	Description
Dimension tiles	Enable you rearrange the layout of a graph and access the Selector dialog box, where you can choose a different set of values for the dimension. There are three types of dimension tiles: Page dimension tiles -- Located in the upper-left corner of the graph window, these tiles represent dimensions in the page position Across dimension tiles -- Located in the upper-right corner of the graph window, these tiles represent dimensions in the across position Down dimension tiles -- Located at the bottom of the graph window, these tiles represent dimensions in the down position
Edit bar	Enables you to edit text such as titles, footnotes, and dimension labels. Select the text or data value you want to edit to make it appear in the edit bar.
Edit bar buttons	The Cancel button clears text from the edit bar. The Enter button moves text from the edit bar into the currently selected area.
Page controls	Enables you to move between pages in a multiple-page graph.
Title, subtitle, and footnote panes	Enables you to specify a title, subtitle, and footnote for the graph.
Dimension labels	Identifies currently selected dimension values.
Redisplay button	Enables you to refresh a document manually after making format or selection changes.
X-axis	A graph's horizontal axis.
Y-axis	A graph's vertical axis. A graph can have either one or two Y-axes.
Data markers	Represent the data shown in a graph. Depending on the type of graph that you are viewing, data markers are either areas, bars, lines, points, or pie slices.
Legend	A key to the data represented in a graph.

Graph menu

When you open a graph in the document window, the Graph menu becomes available on the menu bar.

The following table describes each item on the Graph menu.

Menu Item	Description
Type	Opens the Graph Type dialog box, which enables you to specify the type of graph that you want to use.
Legend	Opens the Legend dialog box, where you can specify whether to display a legend for your graph. This dialog box also enables you to format the legend.
Pie Options	Opens the Pie Options dialog box, where you can specify labels for a pie graph and/or its slices and perform other formatting functions.
Grid	Opens the Grid dialog box, where you can specify whether to display gridlines along the X- and/or Y-axis of a graph.
Graph Options	Opens the Graph Options dialog box, where you can specify information for graph controls, text, attributes, and axis titles.
Dimension Labels	Opens the Dimension Label Setup dialog box, where you can specify the text that the system will use when it creates row, column, and page labels.
Auto Redisplay	When checked, specifies that graphs are to be automatically redisplayed when you make changes to them.t.