Skip to main content

Intro

A Textbox is used to represent a piece of text. The text can be as long as needed if it fits in a single cell of a DataSet, and can contain any character. You can format text to be centered, left-aligned, or right-aligned, and can set the space of the margins. You can also specify text to override the text from your DataSet or reference a value column using a macro.
Screenshot 2024-11-20 at 2.11.17 PM.png

Power Textboxes

Textboxes require two columns or rows of data from your DataSet. One of these should contain the text that appears in the Textbox. The contents of the second column do not matter unless you are planning to include dynamic values in the Textbox. In this case, you would drag the desired value column into the Optional Value field then reference the column in Chart Properties > General > Value using a macro. For information about value, category, and series data, see Understanding Chart Data. In the Analyzer, you choose the columns containing the data for your Textbox. For more information about choosing data columns, see Applying DataSet Columns to Your Chart. For more information about formatting charts in the Analyzer, see Visualization Card Building Part 2: The Analyzer. The following graphic shows how the data from a typical column-based spreadsheet is converted into a Textbox:
textbox_spreadsheet_example_new.png

Customize a Textbox

You can customize the appearance of a chart in a number of ways. Many customizations are possible by setting Chart Properties. For information about all chart properties, see Chart Properties. Unique properties of Textboxes include the following:

Property

Description

Example

General > Text

Lets you set custom text for the Textbox. Any text you enter here replaces the text from your DataSet. You can use the macro %_VALUE here to insert the value from the column you applied in the Optional Value field. For example, if you wanted the text in your textbox to read “Today’s quota is [some value],” you would enter Today’s quota is %_VALUE in this field. Ensure that No Aggregation is set for the column.

textbox_value.png

General > Font Size

Lets you select the font size for the text in the Textbox. A number of sizes are available ranging from Small to XX-Large. If you select Default , the size is chosen that best matches the amount of available space. So, if you had the maximum amount of space available, the “XX-Large” size would be used.

General > Font Style

Lets you choose whether the font for your text is plain, bold, italic, or bold-italic.

General > Font Color

Lets you choose the color for your text.

General > Horizontal Text Alignment

Lets you select the horizontal alignment for your text. The examples at right show the same string of text left-aligned, center-aligned, and right-aligned, in that order.

textbox_left_aligned.png

textbox_center_aligned.png

textbox_right_aligned.png

General > Vertical Text Alignment

Determines whether the text in your Textbox appears at the top, in the center, or at the bottom.

General > Top Margin

Determines the amount of space in pixels above the text.

General > Bottom Margin

Determines the amount of space in pixels below the text.

General > Left Margin

Determines the amount of space in pixels to the left of the text.

General > Right Margin

Determines the amount of space in pixels to the right of the text.