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 organization, 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 organization’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.

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 analyzed, and the way the analysis is displayed.

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

Analysis Definition

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.

Data / Results / Weights / Style / Chart

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 “Crocodile” survey that is supplied with Snap.)
  2. Click the chart button charts button to create a new chart.
  3. The Analysis Definition dialog appears:

    Analysis Definition dialog

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

    Frequency of visit

  6. Right-click the chart to bring up the context menu and select Load Style.
  7. The Load Style dialog appears. This dialog allows for the loading of any saved styles. If a custom style has not yet been saved, then only the default styles can be selected.
    Select Analysis Style
  8. The next Steps (Step 2 to 4) discuss the creation of a new style.

Step 2: Setting a new background for your chart

This example replaces the background with a picture, but you can replace it with any color/picture you like.

  1. Double-click the background of the chart to open the Chart Designer.
    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 11 folder.
  5. Navigate to a folder that contains the background image of choice. Select the image and click [Open].
  6. Use the Picture Size radio buttons to select the best fit for your image. Stretch to Fit will stretch the image to the background of the chart.
  7. Click [Apply]. The Chart Designer dialog will remain open, but the new background will appear on your chart.

    Chart Designer dialog

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 defaults | Datapoint1 in the left hand pane.
    Chart Designer Fill Tab
  2. Select the Fill tab.
  3. Change the Fill color to green and click [Apply] to see your changes on the chart.
  4. Select Series | Monthly | Datapoint | Datapoint1 in the left hand pane.
    Chart Designer Fill Tab 2
  5. Select two colors to mix in the Fill color and Pattern color drop down menus. In this example, we used “purple” and “green” respectively.
  6. Change the color to a textured pattern by selecting the drop-down pattern menu and choosing a suitable texture. The pattern dialog displays the colors you have already chosen.
    Pattern Dialog
  7. Click [Apply] if you wish to make further changes, else click [OK] to close the dialog.
    Labelled Pie Chart

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. Browse to the location that you wish to save the style.
  6. Click [OK] to save your style.

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 charts button.
  2. In the Results definition dialog, change the style to Doughnut Percent, type q6b in the Analysis box and click [OK]. A new chart appears showing five series elements as donut slices.
    Doughnut Cleanliness
  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.
    Doughnut Cleanliness 2

    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 organizations charts, you need to work from the most complex chart that you use, in order to ensure that you have enough colors.

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com