Accurately positioned Custom Comments in Column Charts

Many users/developers want to see/display custom comments in a Column chart. Not just displaying custom comments, accurately positioning them is a challenge as well. I've seen people use workarounds which are GREAT, but users/developers end up compromising (on few things) due to limitations in Web Intelligence.

Let's consider the below scenario of a Column Chart with Company Names and their Revenue in $B (dummy numbers over a period of time), plus the Custom Comments to be shown on top of each bar with Traded As names (of those companies on NASDAQ/NYSE), their Stock Price (at a point in time) and also conditional formatting of those custom comments depending on the Revenue (in $B).

Let's see how to do it.

Below is the data I used to develop this report.

Step 1:

• Create the below variables
  • v_MaxRev =Max([Revenue]) In Block

(To find out the maximum Revenue out of all Companies)

• v_PctofMaxRev =[Revenue] / [v_MaxRev]

(To find what Percent is the Revenue of a Company when compared to the maximum Revenue out of all the Companies)

• v_TradedAsandStockPrice =[Traded As]+" - $"+[Stock Price]

(To concatenate Traded As name and Stock Price of a Company, which we want to show as Custom Comments)

• v_LinestoSkip (Main variable of this trick, to skip number of lines (or move down) depending on the Revenue (measure) value)

=If([v_PctofMaxRev] <= 0.0249) Then 40

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.025;0.0499)) Then 39

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.05;0.0749)) Then 38

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.075;0.0999)) Then 37

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.1;0.1249)) Then 36

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.125;0.1499)) Then 35

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.15;0.1749)) Then 34

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.175;0.1999)) Then 33

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.2;0.2249)) Then 32

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.225;0.2499)) Then 31

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.25;0.2749)) Then 30

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.275;0.2999)) Then 29

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.3;0.3249)) Then 28

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.325;0.3499)) Then 27

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.35;0.3749)) Then 26

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.375;0.3999)) Then 25

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.4;0.4249)) Then 24

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.425;0.4499)) Then 23

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.45;0.4749)) Then 22

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.475;0.4999)) Then 21

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.5;0.5249)) Then 20

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.525;0.5499)) Then 19

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.55;0.5749)) Then 18

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.575;0.5999)) Then 17

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.6;0.6249)) Then 16

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.625;0.6499)) Then 15

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.65;0.6749)) Then 14

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.675;0.6999)) Then 13

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.7;0.7249)) Then 12

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.725;0.7499)) Then 11

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.75;0.7749)) Then 10

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.775;0.7999)) Then 9

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.8;0.8249)) Then 8

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.825;0.8499)) Then 7

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.85;0.8749)) Then 6

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.875;0.8999)) Then 5

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.9;0.9249)) Then 4

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.925;0.9499)) Then 3

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] Between (0.95;0.9749)) Then 2

ElseIf([v_PctofMaxRev] >= 0.975) Then 1

• v_PositionedCustomComments =RightPad("";[v_LinestoSkip];Char(13))+[v_TradedAsandStockPrice]

(To show Custom Comments in their accurate position)

Step 2:

• Insert a Vertical table on top left of the report, with just 2 rows and update Format Table for the below options
  • Format Table -> General -> Update Name as Custom Comments Table
  • Format Table -> Layout -> Relative Position -> Horizontal as 0.2 cm from Left of Report and Vertical as 0.2 cm from Top of Report.
  • Format Table -> Appearance -> In Alternate Color, update Frequency as 0 and Color as White
  • Click Apply and OK
• Insert Company Name in first row and v_PositionedCustomComments in 2nd row as shown below.

• Select all 4 cells in the table and go to Format Cell to update below options
  • Format Cell -> General -> check Autofit Height
  • Format Cell -> Alignment -> Update Horizontal as Center and Vertical as Top (Note: This is very important.)
  • Format Cell -> Alignment -> Update Padding as 0 cm for Top, Bottom, Left and Right.
  • Format Cell -> Font -> Update Font size as 7
    
  • Format Cell -> Border -> Remove all borders
  • Click Apply and OK.
• Select the 2 cells Body Cells (not header) and right click on them to go to Format Cell
  • Format Cell -> set Width as 2.12 cm
  • Click Apply and OK. This is how the table will look with data.

• Select the 2 Header cells and right click on them to go to Format Cell
  • Format Cell -> Appearance -> under Background Image, update Color to No Color and Pattern to None.
  • Click Apply and OK.
• Right Click on one of the company names from this vertical table and go to Hide -> click Hide Dimension as we want to hide the Company Name. This is how the table looks now.

Step 3:

• Create a Column Chart with Company Name on Category Axis and Revenue on Value Axis 1 as shown below.

• Go to Format Chart and update below options:
  • General -> Width = 22 cm and Height = 13.25 cm
  • General -> Data Values -> Check on Data Displaying Label Mode, update Data Postion = Inside, change Font size to 7, Font color to White and Orientation as Horizontal
  • General -> Background -> Update Background Color's Opacity to be 0%, so it becomes transparent
  • Legend -> Design -> Update Layout -> Location as Bottom
  • Legend -> Title -> Uncheck Visible
  • Category Axis -> Title -> Uncheck Visible
  • Value Axis -> Title -> Uncheck Visible
  • Value Axis -> Scaling -> Update Maximum Value to Fixed Value and use formula =[v_MaxRev]
  • Plot Area -> Background -> Update Category Axis Grid Color Opacity to 100%, so it becomes transparent.
  • Click Apply and OK.
• Right Click on the Column Chart, from Order -> select Bring to Front.
• Go back to Format Chart and update these options
  • Format Chart -> Global -> Layout -> Relative Position -> set Horizontal as 1.35 cm from Left edge of Custom Comments Table and Vertical as 1 cm from Top edge of Custom Comments Table.
  • Click Apply and OK. This is how the Chart looks now.

Step 4:

• Create the required Title and Subtitle as needed.
• Create a conditional formatting Rule as below:
  • If [Revenue] Greater or equal to 75, then Font color should be Green
  • If [Revenue] Between 25 and 74.99, then Font color should be Blue
  • If [Revenue] Less or equal to 25, then Font color should be Red

• Save this rule and apply on the Column in Custom Comments Table.

Voila, we did it. This is what the result looks like.

The result of this method may be 95% of what users/developers want. Rest 5% is just adjusting the Chart width and Column width (that shows custom comments) manually by looking at it.

Note:

This trick will surely help until the below BI Idea is delivered as a feature. I request all of you who check out this document, to checkout and vote up on the below ideas.

comments in charts : View Idea

Webi Chart with Data Table : View Idea

Also, this workaround can be used with Combined Column, Stacked Column, Bar, Line... and few other types of Charts available.

Enjoy and please let me know your feedback.