Hi, I have many charts in my document. I need to set the backround color via the expression tab in the chart properties but the "Background Color" is greyed out. How do I turn this on so I can do the color expression?
It's greyed out because you haven't set an expression yet, just put one into the expression box to the right and it will become bold to indicate that an expression has been set.
Thank you! that was it. Now I realize that I have so many charts that need to have consistant colors that I should do it the right way and import the RGB values along with my data. I did that, created the variable 'document settings', 'Variables' tab. and put in the variable if (not IsNull (R), RGB(R,G,B)). Then I put the expression =$(vColor) into the EXPRESSION tab in Backround color. Can't figure out why it's not working??
I'd use if(len(R),RGB(R,G,B)) instead, but same idea. I doubt that's the problem. I'd try displaying the R, G and B fields in your chart to make sure they're being established properly.
thanks. ok I did that and the RGB colors show up correctly. Now they're just not flowing through to my product names. Could it be because I'm grouping by product? There's like 20 - 60 rows for each product.
If the colors are associated with the product, and there's only one product associated with each row, then the colors should be fine for each row. That's why we displayed the R, G, B on each row. Since they're showing, though, I've no idea what's wrong at this point.
In case it helps, attached is a working example. In this case, I'm assigning colors to customers. Rather than check for the existence of R, I instead generate random colors for all customers I haven't explicitly assigned colors to. That would make your expression RGB(R,G,B), which is just as short as =$(vColor), and more understandable. Also, in the example, I use these colors in three slightly different color expressions to accomplish what I want, so a variable wouldn't help. I could use three, I suppose, but they're short expressions that seem unlikely to change. I DO underutilize variables in my applications, though, I'd say.
