Charts

PipeDream enables you to produce many types of chart from your spreadsheets; you can produce pie charts, bar charts, line charts, scatter charts and overlay charts.

For each type of chart, you can choose from a wide variety of styles by selecting the style you want from a gallery, in which you can see examples of the possible styles for the chart type you have chosen.

Once you have produced a chart, you can resize it and edit each part of it individually. You also have a great deal of control over the final appearance of your chart in terms of colour, text style and fill style.

Indeed, PipeDream provides all the facilities you need to produce exactly the chart you want.

The charts you produce are dynamic, i.e. any changes made to the spreadsheet data on which they are based are reflected in the charts themselves.

Producing a Chart From a PipeDream Spreadsheet

  1. Mark the block of spreadsheet data from which you want to produce a chart.
  2. Give the New Chart command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts New Chart CHN

The chart editing window is displayed, containing the chart produced from the marked block of spreadsheet data. The chart type used is the preferred chart type. If you have not yet set a preferred chart type, PipeDream displays a bar chart. The chart displayed in the chart editing window becomes the current chart, i.e. any chart commands you give will be applied only to this chart.

If there are more rows than columns or an equal number of rows and columns in the marked block, PipeDream assumes that the categories (i.e. the x-data) run across the columns. If any of the cells in the leftmost column of the marked block are text cells, PipeDream assumes that the column contains the category labels. If any of the cells in the top row of the marked block are text cells, PipeDream assumes that the row contains the series labels—normally these are only seen in legends or 3-D charts.

If there are more columns than rows in the marked block, PipeDream assumes that the categories (i.e. the x-data) run down the rows from the top of the marked block. If any of the cells in the top row of the marked block are text cells, PipeDream assumes that the row contains the category labels. If any of the cells in the leftmost column of the marked block are text cells, PipeDream assumes that the column contains the series labels—normally these are only seen in legends or 3-D charts.

Altering a Chart by Altering Data in PipeDream

If you make a change to any PipeDream cell in the block from which a chart was produced, the chart is reformatted and redisplayed, taking account of the change you have made.

If you insert rows or columns into the block from which a chart was produced, new entries are made in the chart. If you delete rows or columns from the block, the corresponding entries are removed from the chart.

Note that the same block can be used to produce more than one chart.

Selecting a Chart

You can select a chart. This makes it the current chart, so that any commands you give will operate upon it.

  1. Give the Select Chart command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts Select Chart CHS

You will see a list of all the charts currently in PipeDream.

If one of the charts is within a PipeDream document, the leafname of the document is shown in brackets. For example, [Penguins]BarChart1 represents a chart called ‘BarChart1’ within the document ‘Penguins’.

If a chart appears in more than one PipeDream document, a number is displayed next to the chart’s name to indicate how many documents contain it.

The chart you have chosen becomes the current chart.

Adding Data to a Chart

You can add more PipeDream spreadsheet data to a chart:

  1. Mark the block of spreadsheet data you want to add to the chart.
  2. Give the Add to Chart command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts Add to Chart CHA

You will see a list of all available charts, as you do when you give the Select Chart command.

You can choose a chart from this list by clicking on its name. If you do so, the chart you choose becomes the current chart.

The current chart is redrawn to take account of the new data which has been added to it.

Removing Data From a Chart

You can remove PipeDream spreadsheet data from a chart:

  1. Mark the block of spreadsheet data you want to remove from the chart.
  2. Give the Remove from Chart command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts Remove from Chart CHR

You will see a list of all available charts, as you do when you give the Select Chart command.

You can choose a chart from this list by clicking on the chart’s name. If you do so, the chart you choose becomes the current chart.

The current chart is redrawn to take account of the data which has been removed from it.

Deleting a Chart

To delete the current chart, give the Delete Chart command:

Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts Delete Chart CHD

You will see a list of all available charts, as you do when you give the Select Chart command.

You can choose a chart from this list by clicking on the chart’s name. If you do so, the chart you choose will be deleted.

Editing a Chart

To edit a chart:

  1. Give the Edit Chart command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Charts Edit Chart CHE

You will see a list of all available charts, as you do when you give the Select Chart command.

The Chart Editing Window is displayed containing the current chart.

If you resize the window, PipeDream resizes and reformats the chart appropriately.

Altering the type of your chart

To change the type of your chart:

  1. Click Menu in the Chart Editing Window to bring up the Chart Editing Menu.
  2. Slide off the Gallery option to bring up the Gallery sub-menu.
  3. If you want to restore the preferred chart type, click the Preferred option. If you want to set a different chart type, slide off the appropriate option.

Unless you clicked on Preferred, the Gallery dialogue box for the chart type you chose is displayed.

Pie

The Pie Gallery dialogue box displays pictures of eight styles of pie chart. Choose the style closest to the final result you want by clicking on the appropriate picture.

The remaining options in the dialogue box enable you to fine-tune your pie chart so that you get exactly what you want.

You can specify that all sectors, or a selected sector, of the pie chart should be exploded by a given distance or brought back to the centre. Use the All and Selection radio buttons and the Distance input field to make these settings.

You can choose whether the pie chart should run clockwise or anti-clockwise and specify the starting angle. Either click the radio buttons to select a 12, 3, 6 or 9 o’clock starting angle, type in a number or use the up / down arrow buttons to set the angle you require. Note that the number specifies a clockwise bearing in the same way as a compass, i.e. 0 at the top, 90 at the middle right, etc.

Bar

The Bar Gallery dialogue box displays pictures of the available styles of bar chart. Choose the style closest to the final result you want by clicking on the appropriate picture.

The remaining dialogue box options enable you to set the following:

This can be positive to space the bar slots out, zero to have the bar slots abutting each other or negative to have the bar slots overlapping. A setting of 100% would make the bar slots overlap completely. This setting does not apply to 3-D bar charts.

A setting of zero would make the bars very thin; a setting of 100% would make them fill their slots. This setting also applies to 3-D bar charts.

A setting of zero would make the bars very thin; a setting of 100% would make them fill their slots. This setting applies only to 3-D bar charts.

If a fill style (see below) using a picture has been chosen, you can specify whether the picture is stretched vertically to fill the bar or whether the number of copies of the picture used to fill the bar is dependent on the bar value.

Click on the 3-D option icon to turn 3-D on or off.

Line

The Line Gallery dialogue box displays pictures of the available styles of line and point chart. Point charts are line charts without the lines between points. Choose the style closest to the final result you want by clicking on the appropriate picture.

The remaining dialogue box options enable you to set the following:

This gives a ribbon which can be filled in a solid colour. The line style and line colour settings only affect the lines bounding the ribbon.

If this option is set, lines are dropped from each data point to the category axis.

Scatter

The Scatter Gallery dialogue box displays pictures of the available styles of scatter chart. Choose the style closest to the final result you want by clicking on the appropriate picture.

In scatter charts, points are plotted at x and y positions corresponding to their numeric input pair, rather than using labelled categories. The points may be joined by lines in the style you select (see below). Note that the x-data is not sorted by PipeDream. Hence if the input x-data is not sorted, the lines joining the points may go backwards from right to left as well as from left to right.

In the dialogue box you can select the x-error bar and y-error bar independently. These take additional values and are used to draw error bars of the given length in the x and/or y directions.

Overlays

The Overlays Gallery dialogue box displays pictures of the available styles of overlay chart. Choose the style closest to the final result you want by clicking on the appropriate picture.

The series in the chart are repartitioned such that not more than half of them are moved to the overlay chart. Overlays have chart type, axes and scaling independent of the main chart. Pie charts cannot be overlaid or used as overlays.

To remove the overlay from a chart, use the Remove overlay button in the Line Gallery, Bar Gallery or Scatter Gallery dialogue boxes. All series will then be put back into the main chart.

Selecting any kind of pie will force overlays to be removed.

Changing the style of your chart

You can change the style of any part of your chart:

  1. Click Select on the part of the chart you want to change.

You can select the chart background, plot area, individual axes, series, etc.

Series are numbered from 1, so series 1 is called S1.

Points within a series can be selected individually by clicking Adjust on them. S2P4 refers to point 4 in series 2.

Axes are numbered from 1 to 6. The numbering depends on whether 3-D is set and whether there are any overlays:

The Selection sub-menu options which you cannot apply to your selected part will be greyed out. You can apply all the other options to it.

Fill colour

If you click Select on this option, you will see the Colour Selection dialogue box which you can use to alter the solid colour used to fill an object such as the background of the plot area or the insides of the bars in a bar chart. Use the sliders to drag the R, G and B values from 0 to 255 or use the up / down arrow buttons.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

Fill style

If you click Select on this option, you will see the Fill Style dialogue box which you can use to specify whether filled objects should be filled with a solid colour or with a picture. Click on the Solid button to specify the former or on the Picture button to specify the latter. If you select pictures, you will be able to scroll through the files available for use as fill patterns.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

If you want to use your own picture as a fill pattern, drag your Draw file into the Chart Editing window.

Line colour

If you click Select on this option, you will see the Colour Selection dialogue box which you can use to alter the colour used for objects such as the borders around the plot area, the legend border, the grid lines and the outsides of bars in bar charts.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

Line style

If you click Select on this option, you will see the Line Style dialogue box. This has options for pattern and thickness. Five patterns are given, one of which is solid; the other four are dashed patterns.

Thickness is specified in points. You can type in a number or choose the picture of the line thickness you want.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

Legend

The Legend option in the Chart Editing menu can be turned on or off by clicking on it. If it is turned on, a tick appears next to its name. Sliding off the Legend option brings up the Legend sub-menu.

This sub-menu has only one option: Arrange vertically. You can switch this on or off by clicking on it. If it is switched on, a tick appears next to it.

To reposition a legend, select it and drag it into place.

Adding and Editing text in your chart

You can create new text, such as chart titles, anywhere within the chart area in any style:

  1. Give the New Text command from the Chart Editing window.
  2. In the Text Window, type in the text you require.
  3. Click the Tick toolbar button.

The text will be placed in the chart at the point where you brought up the menu. You can alter its position later by selecting it and dragging it.

To edit text in your chart:

  1. Select the text.
  2. Click the Menu button to bring up the Chart Editing menu.
  3. Slide off the Selection option to bring up the Selection sub-menu.
  4. Slide off the Text option.

You will see the Text Window. If you want to remove the selected text from the chart, click Remove. To replace the selected text, type the new text into the Text Window and click the Tick tool button. The selected text will be replaced by the Text Window text. Click the Cross tool button to cancel editing.

Text colour

If you click this button, you will see the Colour Selection dialogue box which you can use to alter the colour used for text.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

Hint colour

If you click this button, you will see the Colour Selection dialogue box which you can use to alter background hint colour. This is used to improve the appearance of anti-aliased font rendering on screen. For example, if white text is displayed on a blue background, it is best to set the hint colour to blue, especially in 256 colour (or greater) modes.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

To control the axes of your chart

  1. Select the axis by clicking on it.
  2. Click the Menu button to bring up the Chart Editing menu.
  3. Slide off the Selection option to bring up the Selection sub-menu.
  4. Slide off the Axis option.

You will see the Axis dialogue box in which you can set the axis control attributes.

You can specify the position of the axis, to the left or right of the plot area or as close to zero as possible.

You can turn log (base 10) scaling of an axis on or off for a selected axis. Note that log scaling turns off all other axis scaling and interval options.

You can turn autoscaling on or off for a selected axis.

If autoscaling is turned off, the chart uses the specified minimum and maximum values on that axis. If the actual data values fall outside this range, the range used to plot the graph is increased accordingly to ensure that all your data is plotted sensibly.

You can turn grid lines on or off for an axis.

You can turn major and minor ticks on or off for an axis.

You can specify whether these ticks are to the left (or bottom), right (or top) or centred on the axis.

You can specify the major and minor tick intervals which are used if the autointerval option is turned off. Note that if major ticks are turned off minor ticks are also turned off.

When you have made the settings you require, click the OK button or press Return↵.

Saving Your Chart

You can save your chart, either as a ‘live’ dynamic chart or as a ‘dead’ Draw file, into a PipeDream document.

To save a dynamic chart into a PipeDream document:

  1. Open the window of the PipeDream document into which you want to insert the chart.
  2. Position the caret at the top left of where you want the chart positioned.
  3. Give the Save command from the Chart Editing menu.
  4. Slide off the Chart option.
  5. Drag the chart’s file icon into the PipeDream document window.

This inserts an @G reference to the chart file.

Whenever the chart is updated, those PipeDream document windows which contain it are redrawn. You can adjust the @G reference to rescale the chart, just as you can with Draw files.

You can copy the chart into more than one document.

To save a ‘dead’ Draw file into a PipeDream document, proceed as above, sliding off the Draw file option in the Save sub-menu.

You can also save the chart as a ‘dead’ Draw file into a file or into another application such as Draw.

To save a chart as a file to disc, drag its file icon into the required directory display.