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Formatting the Bubbles in a Bubble Chart

This topic describes how you can format the bubbles in a bubble chart.

1. Right-click any bubble in the bubble chart and select Format Bubble on the shortcut menu, or double-click any bubble in the chart. Designer displays the Format Bubble dialog box.

   

2. In the General tab, specify whether to apply a three-dimensional visual effect to the bubbles, and you can use the Cut Bubble Based on XY Area option to control whether to cut the bubbles when they are beyond the chart wall (the area formed by the X axis and Y axis). While, Designer still cuts the bubbles if they go beyond the chart paper.
3. In the Fill tab, set the color pattern to fill the bubbles.

   

   First make a choice for the Self Settings checkbox: when Self Settings is cleared (the default behavior), Designer synchronizes the color pattern that you specify here to the Pattern List property on the chart object in the Report Inspector, which data markers of other subtypes can also apply if the chart is a combo chart; when you select Self Settings, it indicates that the color pattern is private to the current data markers themselves (the bubbles in this case), which Designer remembers and applies to the data markers of a new type automatically if later you change the type of the chart. Then, specify the color pattern as follows:

   • If the chart has no series field, set the color and the transparency of the color to fill all bubbles (to change the color, select the color indicator and select a color from the color palette, or type the hexadecimal value of a color in the text box).
   • If the chart has series field, set the color and the transparency of the color to fill the bubbles in the current data series, that is the bubbles in the same data series as the one you have selected on to open the Format Bubble dialog box, or select Color List to specify the color pattern for bubbles in each data series respectively using the Color List dialog box.
4. In the Border tab, specify properties for the border of the bubbles.

   

   Select Show Border if you want to show the border of the bubbles, then specify the color, color transparency, line style, thickness, end caps style, and line joint mode of the border.

   In the Path box, specify the fill pattern of the border: Outline Path or Fill Path.

   In the Dash box, select to automatically adjust the dash size or use fixed dash size if you select a dash line style for the border.

5. Skip the Data Label tab because Designer does not support displaying data labels in bubble charts.
6. In the Hint tab, specify options of the chart hint (the Show Tips property of the chart paper in the Report Inspector should be "true" if you want to show the hint): specify whether to include the category and series values in the hint, whether to scale big and small numbers, and whether to use customized names for the fields on the value axis in the hint, and customize the names as you want. A hint displays the value a bubble represents when you point to the bubble in Designer view mode, in HTML output, or at runtime.

   

7. Select OK to accept the changes and close the dialog box.

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