Customizing your chart type and options

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Visualizations help you display your data in the format you want. When you add metrics and attributes to your report, Explore automatically displays your report in the most suitable format. However, you can change the chart type your report uses, along with many of the chart's display options.

This article contains the following topics:

Changing your chart type

Customizing your chart

Choosing the right chart type for your data

Changing your chart type

You can display your results using over 20 chart types in Explore. Explore automatically selects a chart type based on the metrics and attribute you add. You can also select a new chart type in the Visualization type menu () in the report builder.

To change your chart type

In the report builder, click the Visualization type menu () in the right sidebar.

Select a new chart type. See Choosing the right chart type for your data.

Click anywhere outside the menu to close it and return to your report. Your report is displayed as the selected chart type.

Customizing your chart

You can edit the color, text, and interactions of your report from the Chart configuration menu (). This menu contains customization options unique for each chart type. While some customization options apply to all charts, others are visible only for specific chart types.

The following customization options are available for all charts:

Chart: Edit options specific for individual chart types. The chart type contains options to edit the formatting of your chart. If your chart does not have axes, you can edit text size here.

Colors: Edit the colors of various chart elements like grids, background, and alternating row colors. If you are the account owner, you can set the default colors in the Admin menu. Result colors such as the slices on a pie chart are configured automatically by analytics.

Display format: Change the formatting of your results to percentages, currency, timestamps, or custom formats. See Changing your result format for more information.

Date display format: Change the formatting of the dates in your report. This option appears only if you've added an attribute that is a date.

Row selector: If your chart has rows, this lets you edit how the row selector on the left hand side of the chart is displayed.

Legend: Edit the location, visibility, and colors of your legend.

Datatips: Display information about your results when a user hovers over a data point (see Working with datatips ).

Displayed values: Controls the display and format of metric values on your chart.

Trend line: Add and format a trend line on your charts.

Applied filters: Show or hide filters from viewers.

Visualization Selector: Add the Visualization Selector to your chart. This enables users to toggle between different chart types on a dashboard.

Interactions: Enable or disable interactions (see Turning off dashboard and report interactivity).

Decompose type: Enables you to slice only selected data points by additional attributes (see Interacting with reports).

Drill in: Lets you drill into your data in Explore (see Using drill in to refine your reports).

Explosion: Controls the display and style of exploded charts.

The following customization options are restricted to specific chart types:

X axis, Y axis, Secondary axes: Edit axes settings, such as color, visibility, and label size. You can edit a secondary axes if you add a metric on a dual axis (see Adding metrics to a dual axis).

Tip: If you want to change the name of the X or Y axis, double-click the axis name in the chart, then enter a new name.

Columns: Edit the width, visibility, and alignment for table columns. For information on customizing tables, see Customizing tables.

Choosing the right chart type for your data

Choosing the right chart type for your report depends on the information you're trying to convey. This section helps you choose the best visualization for your needs.

This section contains the following topics:

Chart types for comparing trends over time

Chart types for displaying workflow

Chart types for comparing categories

Chart types using metrics as axes

Chart types for comparing metrics

Chart types for comparing values to total results

Other chart types

Chart types for comparing trends over time

When you want to look at result trends over time, charts with a left to right progression are a good choice to give a sense of flow.

Line

Column

Area

Sparkline

Chart types for displaying workflow

When looking at your company's results, there are chart types available to best display the workflow of your organization. These chart types focus on demonstrating how results progress rather than comparing results.

Funnel

Relational

Parallel set

Word cloud

Chart types for comparing categories

Explore includes chart types that help you to understand reports that compare team, or category results. These chart types are recommended for reporting on metrics in relation to attributes (categories).

Bar

Dot

Treemap

Bubble pack

Picto chart

Chart types using metrics as axes

While other charts have at least one axis defined by an attribute, the charts in this article use only metrics for axes. This can be helpful for comparing multiple metrics without the scale being altered.

Bubble

Radar

Chart types for comparing metrics

While you can compare metrics with all of the chart types, sometimes you might want to view results for only one metric or compare multiple metrics without adding attributes. With the exception of the waterfall chart, these charts work best when comparing one or two metrics.

KPI

Bullet

Gauge

Waterfall

Chart types for comparing values to total results

If you are analyzing how your individual values equate to the total result, Explore offers visualizations that can help you easily display your data. For example, you can use these charts to evaluate which groups are solving the most tickets or what combination of values is producing the highest numbers.

Pie

Sunburst

Other chart types

Although Explore features many visualizations to help you present your report results, sometimes a simple table is the best way to present information.

Working with tables