Chart Colours

The colours section can be used to change the colours that are currently used on a chart.

Click the ‘Colours’ menu at the top of the ‘Edit chart’ screen.

Example

In this Pie Variable Radius chart, the legend at the top-right of the chart shows the colours that have currently been used to represent each of the job roles in the chart.

When you create new charts, they will automatically be coloured with the default colours from the theme that you’re using in your Dashboard. For example, if you have the theme piBerry selected, your charts will use the colours of this theme and may look similar to the chart shown below.

The colours that are linked to each theme can be seen by clicking ‘Edit chart’ in the Chart Tools menu and then clicking the Colours menu. The theme colours are shown below the colour palette and when a chart is created they are applied to each data series from left-right. If you only have one data series, only the first colour will be used. Each additional data series will continue using the next available colour until all colours have been used. When all 9 default colours have been used, the 10th data series will revert back to colour 1 and repeat the pattern again. In the following example, we have 12 data series and we can see from the Legend that the first 9 use the colours from left-right and then we re-use the first 3 colours again.

Changing the colour

The data that has been added to the chart fields will be displayed beneath the colour palette. To change the colour for a particular object, click the ‘Add’ icon next to the relevant object.

For example, to change the colour used for a job role click the ‘Add’ icon next to Job Role.

The options that you see next will differ depending on whether you are changing the colour for a Dimension or a Measure. The first drop-down field is used to choose the relevant comparison operator for example, equal to or not equal to and the second field is used to enter either a number (Measure objects) or choose a value from available options (Dimensions).

Click the first drop-down arrow and select the comparison operator that you want to use.

If you are changing the colour for a Measure, click into the next field and type the figure that you want to use.

If you are changing the colour for a Dimension, click the drop-down arrow for the field next to the comparison operator. A dialog box will be displayed to show all the values that are contained in the selected Dimension.

Example

In this example, the Job Role dimension was selected. When the drop-down arrow next to the comparison operator is clicked, a dialog box is displayed that shows the job roles. You can see that these options match the values in the legend on the right-hand side of the screen.

Either click on a value in the dialog box to select an item or click into the ‘Type to filter’ field and enter text to start filtering the list.

When the comparison operator and the text or number that you want to colour has been entered, the object section should look like this.

If you do not choose a new colour, the colour shown beneath the comparison operator will be used.

To choose a different colour, click the relevant section on the right-hand side of the colour palette. In the following screenshot the red area of the colour section has been selected (identified by the white line towards the bottom of the colour shade section), the colour palette will show different variations of this colour from light to dark.

Click a variation of the colour in the colour shade area to select the colour that you want to use.

The two squares beneath the preview area will show the current colour on the left and the newly selected colour on the right.

To apply the newly selected colour to the chart, click the coloured square beneath the comparison operator field. You should see a small paintbrush appearing in the coloured square, the new colour choice will now be applied to the relevant area of the chart.

As well as choosing a shade of colour, you can also select from one of the colour options configured in your Dashboard theme, which are displayed beneath the colour shade square and then follow the steps listed above to apply the chosen colour.

You can repeat these steps as many times as you need, click the ‘Add’ icon again to add extra colour options and repeat the steps listed above.

Removing colours

To remove a colour option from a chart, click the ‘Remove’ icon next to the relevant section.

Any areas of the chart that used this colour will revert to the default theme colour.