Area charts in Reports

Area charts typically use three data dimensions, or variables, to compare trends or changes over time for two or more categories.

Available charts

Icon	Chart name	Description
	Area	displays graphically quantitative data that typically compares two or more quantities
	Stacked Area	typically compares trends or changes over time for two or more categories, and also shows the proportion of the total that each category represents at any given point in time

When do you use them?

Area charts compare historical trends or changes by showing the proportion of the total that each category represents at any given point in time. They communicate overall trends rather than individual values when comparing multiple data sets.

Examples

Your organization is tracking project data and needs to determine which projects have the highest issue severity. Using an area chart, you visualize each project and clearly demonstrate the associated issue severity information:

Issue severity by project

Chart configuration settings

Note

The Reports interface prevents you from using data types that are unsupported and from building charts that do not include the mandatory settings.

On the Chart tab, configure the following settings:

Setting	Description
Horizontal Axis	the field to use as the basis for the chart's horizontal scale
Vertical Axis	the field to use as the basis for the chart's vertical scale
Color	the field represented by the third data dimension to the chart Adding a third data dimension can sub-divide Horizontal Axis categories. You can think of the Color field as a break field.
Animation	the datetime field used to animate the chart Each value of the animation field generates a unique frame in the animation. Note To provide a label for each frame, format the chart title to display the animation field.
Auto Refresh	turned on by default If you turn off this setting, you disable the chart preview and stop querying the database after each field change.