Moving Chart Components - Fine Adjustment

[jason_nicholas]

I expect this to be user error, but I'm going to take a shot and see if there are any hints here.

I have just learned to use Ctrl+Shift to move chart components in my Qlikview app. My particular issue is with the selector button for grouped expressions (circular arrow button with a drop down of each expression). When I try to move this around the chart, it seems to snap to certain pre-defined locations, rather than where I drop it.

An example, I have a chart showing total charges, and also average charge per instance. I grouped these expressions so the chart can show one or the other, but the selector icon defaults to the lower-left corner. I would prefer it to be top-center, right next to the expression label. When I move the button, it seems to want to be either on top of the text or far to the side, but I don't seem to have the fine control to place it in a specific spot.

Is there a trick I am not aware of? Or a limited number of anchor points? I would appreciate any help.

[vishsaggi]

Can you share your app if possible, may be they are defaulted to specific position. What is happening when you move the group using Ctrl+Shift?

[kamielrajaram]

Hi,

Holding the ctrl+Shift will highlight the different chart areas. Holding the crtl+Shift keys down, click on the cyclic and drag the the desired position.

Regards

Kamiel

[jason_nicholas]

Unfortunately, I can't upload content from where I am. When I hold Ctrl+Shift, the movable items highlight with a red square, and I am able to grab items and move them around as expected.

The problem comes in when I try to place them in  a specific spot. It seems there are only certain anchor points where I can place it, and I would have expected a little more freedom in movement.

My chart has a title: 

Total  Charges

I would like to place the selector icon next to this title so it looks like:  

Total Charges [icon]

When I try to place the icon, I get limited choices:

Total Ch[icon]es

or

Total Charges                           [icon]

But I can't seem to place it at any location in between. If I try, the icon I am trying to place jumps to tone of the other points, as if there were limited anchor points where the item can land.

Is this expected behaviour? Or should I be able to place the button in an exact spot?

[c_gilbert]

Rather than clicking in the centre of it and moving the whole thing, you could just try resizing it (grabbing the edges) to try to put it where you want. I think there are some positions where it will 'snap' to, and it can be fiddly trying to avoid these but it should be possible to place it wherever you want. Failing that, you could always create the cyclic button as a separate object and layer it over the top of your existing chart, and hide the one you've been trying to move, then you have complete freedom (you could even put it above the chart for example)

[jason_nicholas]

Could you please expand on the option to create the cyclic button as a separate object? This may be my only option, as the normal button doesn't resize.

[johnw]

I have separate cyclic buttons all over my applications. I create a straight table, add my cyclic dimension, no expression, uncheck show caption, and then shrink the column width until the only thing displayed is the cycle icon. I'm sure there are other ways.

[jason_nicholas]

Unfortunately, these solutions aren't working for me. The cyclic button cycles between two expressions in a chart, and not two dimensions. I can't see how an object unrelated to the chart itself would change the chart expressions. I would be glad to hear any other suggestions, but I may be stuck on this one.

I did see some solutions that discussed changing views, where I have a separate chart for each expression and use a button to minimize one and maximize the other, which would theoretically work (for anyone else looking for a solution).

Unfortunately, I bought into the cyclic button early on in development and I have 18 charts impacted- most imbedded in containers. the only logical choices are leave the buttons where they are or try to figure out why there is a snap-to limitation in the build.

I found the following text on an instruction page for this function:

"Cycle expression icons  and fast chart type change icons can be moved to a free-floating position anywhere within the chart"

But, for whatever reason, 'free-floating' doesn't appear to be accurate.

[johnw · Accepted solution]

Ah, right, it's cycling dimensions, not expressions. It does seem like a cyclic dimension is global, so cycling it in one chart would affect another, but that's still not what you need. Sorry about that.

Here's an even more complicated workaround:

MyExpressions:
LOAD * INLINE [
Expression 1 Label, Expression 2 Label, Expression 3 Label,...
]; // yes, with no data, just field names

Make a cyclic group ExpressionGroup for your expression label fields. Build just the cycle icon as discussed. Then in the main chart, instead of grouping expressions, have a single expression where you use the cyclic group of fields to pick the correct expression.

pick(match(getcurrentfield(ExpressionGroup)

,'Expression 1 Label'
,'Expression 2 Label'
,'Expression 3 Label'
,...)
,Expression 1
,Expression 2
,Expression 3
,...)

But that's going further than I'd suggest for a workaround unless you must have the chart look a particular way.

There may be a better solution, of course.

What I actually do with this sort of cycle button is similar, but instead of choosing expressions, I choose charts. I use that rather than containers or auto-minimize or typically even grouped expressions (similar to what you found with using a button to minimize one and maximize the other, but using a cycle icon instead, which also has a drop down of my chart names). And this goes against what I would generally advise people, which is that your life will be easier if you just accept "the QlikView way". QlikView supports containers? Use containers. QlikView wants to snap your chart bits to specific places and it doesn't look good to you? Accept it and move on. I'm not very good at following my own advice in this regard, though. I want everything to look just so and pixel-perfect and don't like settling for less. I need to remember that my job isn't to impress my users with how pretty my charts are. It's to get them the information they need clearly and quickly.

[jason_nicholas]

I marked the correct answer specifically for this quote:

"...accept "the QlikView way". QlikView supports containers? Use containers. QlikView wants to snap your chart bits to specific places and it doesn't look good to you? Accept it and move on..."

"...my job isn't to impress my users with how pretty my charts are. It's to get them the information they need clearly and quickly."

I appreciate the suggestions. I will adapt to the QV way.