Template Examples

Example 1: Applying a Company Look

Assume that your company colors are blue and gray. In addition to using these colors on all your charts, you want the text Company Confidential to appear on the charts. To do this, you:

  1. Create a chart.
  2. Change colors as appropriate. For example, change the fill color of the outer frame to a pale blue and the fill color of the data frame to pale gray.
  3. Add a text box below the chart with the text Company Confidential.
  4. Save the template (company.sgt) with the following settings:
    • Layout
    • Titles, Footnotes, and Annotations
    • Chart Element Styles
  5. On the Charts tab on the Options dialog box (select Options on the Edit menu in the Viewer), specify company.sgt as the chart template to use for creating charts.

When you create new charts, the Chart Editor automatically applies company.sgt.

Example 2: Reporting on the Same Scale Range

If you report on the same data at regular intervals (for example, monthly sales reports), you want to enforce the same scale axis range for all charts. This functionality is required to compare across charts without having to look at the scale axis values. To do this, you:

  1. Create a chart.
  2. Set the scale axis range to the values you want—for example, 0–100.
  3. Save the template (scale.sgt) with the Scale Range settings.
  4. Apply scale.sgt in the creation dialog box or syntax the next time you create a chart that should use the specified scale axis range.

Example 3: Binning Scatterplot Points at Chart Creation

If your data include many rows, you want to be able to bin scatterplot points at creation time. To do this, you:

  1. Create a scatterplot.
  2. Turn on binning.
  3. Save the template (bin.sgt) with the Scatterplot Point Binning settings.
  4. Apply bin.sgt in the creation dialog box or syntax the next time you create a scatterplot that should use the same binning.

Example 4: Multiple Templates

Assume that you want to apply all of the templates in the other examples. That is, you want the corporate look, the same scale axis range, and the binning of scatterplots. To do this, you:

  1. Create company.sgt and specify it as the default template as explained in example 1.
  2. Create scale.sgt and apply it at creation time as explained in example 2.
  3. Create bin.sgt as explained in example 3, but, instead of applying it at creation time, apply it in the Chart Editor.

You could also have created one template that included all the applicable settings.