By Position - Example

The figure here shows an example of a chart designed to allow the viewer to compare the top-two fields of a question (percent favorable score) with the results from the previous year. This year's results are presented as stacked columns to show the distribution between scores 4 and 5, while last year’s results are presented as a line chart superimposed on the bar chart to indicate the combined percent favorable (4 and 5 scores) of that year.

Figure 1 - Different series settings applied to combine line and stacked columns

In the table . all three series (the percentage columns) are distributions. Therefore the series categories cannot be used to specify different chart types.

Figure 2 - Aggregated table example

The solution is to set the Default Series tab > Chart Type to Stacked column, and then apply a different setting for the final series (the Last Year column) using the parameters on the By Position tab.

To set series settings By Position for a particular series:

1. Go first to the Series > By Category tab.
2. Select the series and check the Enabled checkbox.

You can enable settings for up to five individual series.

3. Go to the By Position tab (see the figure below).
4. State the column’s position, and whether this position is from start or the end of the list of series.

In this example we are looking at the last column in the table in the figure above – that is the 1st column from the right, or end, of the table. Therefore in the first row in the By Position tab we have specified series number 1 from the end (the Start checkbox is unchecked). The remaining rows in the tab are not enabled.

5. Click Edit Layout for the Enabled row to edit the series settings for the series.

A number of additional properties are displayed. In the example below . the chart type is set to Line for this series, and the Line Width is set to 3.

Figure 3 - The By Position tab properties

For more advanced settings, click the Advanced Properties button in the button bar then right-click on the chart to open the right-click menu. In the menu select Position Based Series and then the desired series .(see the figure below).

Figure 4 - Position Based Series options in Advanced Properties

The Advanced Properties sheet for the selected series opens . See the figure below.

Figure 5 - Advanced properties for Position Based Series

The series here corresponds to the chart designer, but a broader range of settings is available in this property sheet. Here you can define settings for up to five series.

Check the Is In Use checkbox, then define the position of the series and whether that position is from the start or the end of the table.

Note: The Position Based Series settings are only available if the series handling is category-based.