Formatting Merged Charts

A Merged chart will not have the same formatting options as a regular chart. However, you can still use formatting options but they must be specified on the child chart. So, in simple terms format your child charts as you would any chart e.g. add any filters, sorting, colours, accessibility and SQL and when the child charts are then merged, the merged chart will display any filters, sorting and colours etc. that were specified at child level.

Accessibility

When accessibility messages are read on a Merged chart, the name of the child chart will be said before the message itself.

Formatting the Merged Chart

As mentioned previously, all formatting options should be done at child chart level however, there are some limited attributes that can be done on the Merged chart such as adding a Chart Title and specifying Legend options.

If a child chart has ‘Show Vertical Lines’ and ‘Enable Y Axis Zooming’ specified, the Merged chart will automatically inherit these options.

The X Axis label can be specified on the Attributes tab of the Merged chart but the information for the Y Axis is driven by the child chart and must be specified at this level.

Parent Charts

You cannot set a Merged chart as a parent chart but all other options that appear on the Edit Chart, Configuration screen will still be available.

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Drill Down paths

Drill down paths are specified at child level and will pull into the Merged chart. You can have different drill paths for each of the child charts and each will work when an element on the relevant child chart is clicked.

Notifications

When looking at the Chart Info notifications you will see separate information for the Merged chart and also for each individual child chart.

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Embedding Merged charts

You can embed Merged charts just as you do with standard charts. The code can be found at the bottom of the Chart Info tab under Chart Information. Merged charts are treat as one chart so you will only see one line of code on the ‘Embed’ section, which relates to the Merged chart itself.

Exporting Merged Charts

You can use the export to PDF, CSV and Word options in the same way that you do for any other chart.

When exporting to CSV, one of the child charts will be displayed first and then the data for the second (or third) child chart will be displayed. In the following screen shot, the first chart added to the merge includes Job Role, Employee Count and Gender. The second chart contains Job Role and Age Measure and we can see that as both charts contain Job Role all related data is in the same column. The Employee Count and Gender fields only appear in the first chart, which is why they’re listed at the top of the export and the Age Measure only exists in the second chart and is therefore displayed in a separate column.

Default Colour

When you use a chart that only contains one colour option, for example a bar chart, the first colour option from the selected theme will be applied. When we add a second chart that only contains one colour, the Merged chart and particularly the legend will be difficult to read.

The following screenshot shows a Merged chart created from 2 charts that only contain one colour and we can see from this screenshot that the Merged chart is not very easy to read.

The default colour option allows you to override the selected colour in one, or both child charts, therefore making the Merged chart a lot clearer. In the following screenshot, we’ve applied a default colour to the bar chart.

To select a default colour, choose the colour that you want to use on the Colours tab in the Edit Chart menu. You can select a new colour by choosing an option from the theme colour squares or by clicking a new colour in the colour palette.

Copy and paste the hex code into the Default Colour field - this is the best method to use if you want to apply a specific colour to your chart.

Alternatively, if you don’t need a specific colour and just want to change the colour to blue or red for example, you can specify a Default Colour by typing the name of a colour directly into the Default Colour field. In the following example, we typed ‘Blue’ into the Default Colour field.