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AmberGartner's avatar
AmberGartner
Qrew Cadet
2 years ago

Color-Code a Series in a Chart if the series is a Report Formula

Hello! I'm making a bar chart and grouping like objects with a report formula. For example, all store types that contain the word "New," I want them to just be called "New." We have New-A, New-K, New 5.1, etc. I have created the summary formula, so the series does work. However, the report gives the "New" doors an automatic color that I can't seem to easily change. Does anyone know how to do choose the color or even know if it's possible?

Thank you!

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Amber Gartner
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reports and charts

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  • PeterSurplice's avatar
    PeterSurplice
    Qrew Member
    10 months ago

    I've got the same issue; my horizontal bar chart has 2 series determined by a report formula, 5 rows match 1 series and the 6th row is the "leader". 

    I get 2 colors, blue or black depending on the alpha-sorting of the value I put into the report formula.

    It looks like highchart is blue for series 0 and black for series 1 and there's nothing i can do about that.

    Sure would be nice to be able to give my chart a punchier color for the report leader!



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    Peter Surplice
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    • MikeTamoush's avatar
      MikeTamoush
      Qrew Commander
      10 months ago

      Can you not change them in the normal way, by clicking in the custom report settings on the color boxes?

      If not, this is probably due to a very annoying 'feature' in Quickbase. On charts, colors are automatically chosen for you. You can go in and reassign the color (typically, maybe not for formulas?), but you can only choose colors for those options that currently exist. And, if that option goes away and comes back, the color will automatically be reassigned.

      For example, you have 3 selections, On Time, In Process, Late. Lets say you have 5 On Time items, and set the color. But over time those 5 On Time things move to in process, and suddenly you have 0 On Time things. That bar disappears from the chart, and when it returns, it changes the color you selected. I haven't tested with a formula, but I wonder if QB doesn't allow changing the color due to this.

      There is a feedback a number of us have voted up, to let us set default colors.



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      Mike Tamoush
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      • PeterSurplice's avatar
        PeterSurplice
        Qrew Member
        10 months ago

        In this instance, the legend doesn't contain configurable colors for each series, because our series is defined by a report formula:

        In this case, we have a formula that lets use use the series colors to highlight records that meet certain conditions, like conditional formatting in Excel:

        If, on the other hand, we use a field for our series we would get the normal legend configuration where we can set the colors for each series.

        We could, alternatively, put our report formula in a formula field on the table; but for tables where you have a lot of reports with conditional formatting you're going to end up with a lot of formula fields with very specific naming to ensure you don't get things mixed up between reports: Avoiding that problem feels like the exact reason why we have report formulas.



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        Peter Surplice
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