Add colored regions in a chart

You can define colored regions in the body of a chart. For example, you can divide the background of a scatter chart into quadrants and color each quadrant.

You can add colored regions to bubble, bullet, combination, Pareto, progressive column, and scatter charts.

In bullet charts, colored regions are automatically added.

You can use the following criteria to position the colored regions.

Option Position

Percent on Axis (%)

Uses a percentage of the full range of the axis.

For example, if the axis range is -500 to 1100, a Percent on Axis value of 25% puts the baseline at -100 (25% of the range, 1600).

Numeric Value

Uses a static numeric value.

Mean

Uses the statistical mean plus or minus a number of standard deviations based on all charted data values on the specified axis.

Percentile (%)

Uses a specified percentile.

Statistical Maximum

Uses the following expression:

25th percentile value - 1.5 * (75th percentile value - 25th percentile value)

For example, if 2.5 is the 25th percentile and 7.5 is the 75th percentile, the statistical minimum is -5 [2.5 -1.5(5) = -5].

Statistical Minimum

Uses the following expression:

75th percentile value + 1.5 * (75th percentile value - 25th percentile value)

For example, if 2.5 is the 25th percentile and 7.5 is the 75th percentile, the statistical maximum is 15 [7.5 +1.5(5) = 15].

Query Calculation

Uses a query calculation from the same query or from a different query. For more information, see Using relational calculations.

Layout Calculation

Uses a layout calculation. For more information, see Using relational calculations.

Category Index

Specifies a position based on the index value of the data item in the categories axis. The value must be between 0 and 100.

For example, a Category index value of 1 indicates that the position is located at the first data item. This is the default.

You can also combine colored regions with grid-lines.

Procedure

  1. Click the chart object.
  2. In the Properties pane, under Color & Background, double-click the Colored Regions property.
  3. Click the New icon new icon.
  4. Under Region label, type a name for the region.
  5. Under Label location, specify whether the label should appear in the legend or in the chart.
  6. If your chart includes multiple charts, such as in a combination chart, under Based on, select the chart to which the colored regions apply.
  7. Under Region fill, click the color box to specify the color and fill effects.
  8. Specify the start and end of the category and numeric positions.
  9. If you want to add more colored regions, repeat steps 3 to 5.
  10. If you add more than one colored region, specify their order using the up and down arrows.

    The regions are drawn in the same order that they appear in this list. The first region is drawn first, on the bottom, and the last region is drawn on top of the other regions.

    Tip: To delete a colored region, click the colored region icon and text and click the delete button delete icon.

Results

The new region appears in the Colored regions box.