Tutorial 20

This tutorial further demonstrates the finer tuning of charts to alter their appearance away from the normal looking charts. Using these chart properties, you can change your chart to appear as a Knob gauge (like a stove knob).

For the purposes of the tutorial we will open our previously saved Query called ‘Tutorial 19′. We will do fine-tuning on this tutorial to change our charts to a ‘Knob Gauge’ using marks, colors, titles/footers and fonts.

Perform the following steps:

• Invoke the NuVu Query Designer from the NuVu Query program group from the windows Start menu. The main NuVu Query Designer window will be displayed, and a welcome dialog window will also be displayed that shows recently saved/opened queries. We are going create a new query from the previous query (tutorial 19), so double-click on (tutorial 19) item that should be displayed inside the Welcome dialog window (if you have successfully performed the previous tutorial and saved is as specified in the tutorial with a name of ‘tutorial 19′. The original query will open inside the Designer. We need to now save this tutorial as ‘tutorial20′ before we start working with the query, so click on the Save Target As menu item and advise a new Query name of tutorial20 when the save properties are displayed.
• Click the OK button to save the query with the new advised name.
• We will now click the  (Chart) button which will invoke the chart dialog window and display the Chart that was previously defined as shown below:
• Click on the  button to open the ‘Chart Properties’ dialog window. This window will allow us to make all the changes we require to create our ‘Knob Gauge’.
• To change the chart type and other details, we must select ‘General’ tab.
• Drop down the ‘Chart Type’ combo-box to view a list of available ‘Types’ that can be chosen. For the purposes of this tutorial we will select ‘Knob Chart’. Next we will select the ‘First Field’ again clicking on the drop down box on the right hand side you will be able to select from the list. For the purposes of this tutorial we will select ‘Sports2000.Salesrep.MonthQuota[1]. Next we will select the ‘Second Field’, again clicking onto he drop down box on the right hand side to select from the list. Here we will select ‘Sports2000.Salesrep.MonthQuota[12].
• We will now select the ‘Series’ tab.
• We will now change the ‘Marks’ property so that the current value that is pointed to by the dial on the knob gauge is shown in the centre of the gauge. Drop-down the list in this field to reveal the available Mark options, and select the ‘Value’ item. You may also alter the start and ending values that will be represented by the Knob gauge. To do this, advise appropriate values into the ‘Min Value’ and ‘Max Value’ fields. Our example will assume a ‘Min Value’ of 6 and a ‘Max Value’ of 124, and an ‘Increment’ of 10.
• Next we will make changes to the values of the ‘Green Line’. This controls the portion of the dial that is shown in a fading green border. Advise a ‘Start Value’ of 6 and ‘End Value’ of 60. Do the same for the ‘Red Line’, advising a ‘Start Value’ of 82 and ‘End Value’ of 116. We will leave the ‘Visible’indicators ticked otherwise the green and/or red line will not be visible on your gauge.
• The ‘Dial Offset’ allows you to adjust the size of your dial pointer. For the purpose of this tutorial we will keep our ‘Dial Offset’ at 92.
• The ‘Gradient’ option gives the chart background a fading color look. To enable this tick the ‘Visible’ tickbox, and then advise the appropriate start, middle and ending color to apply to the gradient.
• We will leave the ‘Labels’ ticked (otherwise you will not have any labels around your dial. The ‘Rotated’ tick-box can be used to show the labels horizontally, or alternatively rotated around the axis of the knob – in this tutorial we are going to leave them ‘Rotated’. The font characteristics for the labels can be changed to any valid ‘Font Name’, ‘Style’, ‘Size’ or ‘Color’ by clicking on the ‘Font’ button. This will open a standard font dialog with a list for you to choose from.
• We will now select the ‘‘Title/Footer’> tab.
• A ‘Title’ can be added here for the naming of your chart. A ‘Footer’ may also be added to the bottom of the chart. If you do not want your ‘Title/Footer’ to show, simply un-tick the ‘Visible’ tickbox just below the ‘Title/Footer’ box. For this tutorial we will tick the ‘Visible’ tickbox fields for both the Title and Footer. Also we will advise a ‘Title’ of Tutorial 20, selecting green as the color, and will also advise a ‘Footer’ of Knob Gauge with a color of fuchsia.
• On the right hand side of ‘Title/Footer’ boxes, the ‘Title/Footer’ can be aligned by clicking on either ‘Left, Center or Right’. For this tutorial we will keep our ‘Title/Footer’ in the ‘Center’. The font can be changed to any valid ‘Font Name’, ‘Style’, ‘Size’ or ‘Color’ by clicking on the ‘Font’ button. This will open a standard font dialog with a list for you to choose from.
• Click on the  button to save the ‘Chart Properties’ chart. The chart will open and displaying all the changes that have been made.

We are complete with the tutorial. An exported query containing this tutorial is available by right-clicking here and choosing Save Link As (Firefox) or Save Target As (Internet Explorer) to save the query import format file to a file on your hard disk, and then importing that query into the query tool (hint: choose File->Import Query from the main menu of the Query Designer).

End of Tutorial