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Giving a consistent look and feel to all your charts

You can save and apply chart styles in Snap in the same way that you can save and apply questionnaire styles. The style of a chart determines the background, the colors used on the chart, and what type of chart it is.

If you wish to have a consistent look and feel for your organisation, you can create a style that only contains the colors and background definitions. You can then apply that style to any chart to make it appear in your organisation's colors.

This worksheet shows how to load one of Snap's color style files over an existing chart, and how to edit the chart and save a new style file.

Background

Charts and tables in Snap consist of data, the way the data is analysed, and the way the analysis is displayed.

You define the data you want to analyse in the Results Definition dialog.

Within the Results Definition dialog is the option to choose a style. The style is essentially a template file that defines how the calculated data will be displayed. Snap provides numerous pre-defined chart and table styles. You can either adapt these to your requirements using the Chart Designer or create new ones using the Chart Wizard.

The chart style is made up of three components:

  • Layout (this defines how the chart is displayed; whether a bar or a pie, etc; axes and what is visible)
  • Background (the color or images used behind the chart)
  • Series colors (the colors used on the chart)

Once you have created a chart style, you can save it, and reapply it to other analyses. You can save the style components separately or together.

Note that the number of series colors in your style file will depend on the number of elements in your chart. If you save a style from a chart with four bars (and four separate colors used to identify them) and apply it to a chart with seven pie slices, the colors will repeat.

Step 1: Loading an existing color style

  1. Open your survey. (This example uses the snCrocodile survey that is supplied with Snap.)
  2. Click the chart button to create a new chart.
  3. The Results Definition dialog appears:

    Basic chart for croc analysis

  4. Define a simple chart by typing q2 in the Analysis field and selecting Pie 2D Labelled from the Style dropdown list.
  5. Click [OK].

  6. Right-click the chart to bring up the context menu and select Load Style.
  7. The Load Style dialog appears. Select one of the pre-defined Shade styles. This example uses Shade Sea 8.csf. This uses a range of 8 green/blue colors to specify the different series (slices on a pie chart) and has a background that changes shade from green to blue.

    Load style daogue for selecting a .csf file

  8. Clear the Layout check box at the right-hand bottom corner to ensure that you only load the background and color. If you leave this box checked and load a style which does not contain layout information, a dialog appears warning you that the style only includes background and series colors.
  9. Click [OK] on the Load Style dialog.

    Your bar chart colors and background change, while retaining all the analysis information.

    Basic bar chart with fall style loaded

Step 2: Setting a new background for your chart

The sea style has a background that fades from blue to green. This example replaces it with a picture, but you can replace it with any colors you like.

  1. Double-click the background of the chart to open the Chart Designer.
  2. Select Chart in the left hand column if it is not already selected.
  3. Select the Picture tab.
  4. Click the [Browse] button to choose your picture. An open file dialog appears. By default it opens the Program Files|Snap 9 folder.
  5. Select the Images |Landscape subfolder. Select the Mountain Lake blue.bmp image and click [Open].
  6. Set the Picture Size radio button to Stretch to Fit.
  7. Click [Apply]. The Chart Designer dialog will remain open, but the new background will appear on your chart.

Step 3: Setting colors in the pie slices

  1. If the chart designer dialog is not already open, double-click the pie slice that you wish to change on your chart. This example starts with the Daily slice.

    If it is already open, select Series | Daily | Datapoint in the left hand pane.

  2. Select the Fill tab.

    Set purple pie slice in chart designer

  3. Change the Fill color to purple and click [Apply] to see your changes on the chart.
  4. Select Series | Monthly | Datapoint in the left hand pane.
  5. Select two colors to mix in the Fill Color and Pattern Color drop down menus.
  6. Change the color to a textured patter by selecting the drop-down pattern menu and choosing a suitable texture. The pattern dialog displays the colors you have already chosen.

    Selecting a pattern inchart designer

  7. Click [Apply] if you wish to make further changes, else click [OK] to close the dialog.

    Edited chart showing background image

Step 4: Saving your new chart style

  1. Right click your modified chart and select Save Style from the context menu.
  2. The Save Style dialog appears.
  3. Enter a name for your new style.
  4. Uncheck the layout box but leave the background and series box checked. This defines the fact that you only want to save the chart colors and background.
  5. Click [OK] to save your style.

    By default your chart will be saved in the Snap 9|Styles folder. If you wish to put your styles in a place where everyone using Snap in your organisation can see them (for example, somewhere on your network), browse to the folder and then save your file.

    Saving a csf file

If you leave the layout box checked your saved style will have all the chart information, not just the background and colors, and you will overwrite the chart types if you load it to a different chart.

Step 5: Testing your new style

  1. Click the chart button .
  2. In the Results definition dialog, change the style to Donut 3D, type q6b in the Analysis box and click [OK].

    A new chart appears showing five series elements as donut slices.

    Basic donut chart

  3. Right-click the chart and select Load Style from the context menu.
  4. Select the style you have recently saved.
  5. Uncheck the layout box and click [OK].

    Your new colors and background will appear in your chart.

    Note that because you saved a four-color style and are loading it to a five series chart, one of the colors is used twice. You may wish to add a new color element, or tag your style name with the number of series colors it holds. When creating a color style file for your organisations charts, you need to work from the most complex chart that you use, in order to ensure that you have enough colors.