9.3.7.5 The (Plot Details) Spacing Tab

The controls on the Spacing tab are dependent on the current data plot type. The following reference section reviews all the possible controls on this tab.

Column/Bar


2D Columns/Bars graph	2D Columns/Bars graph with Subgrouping

Histogram and Box


Box / Histogram with Subgrouping	Box / Histogram without Subgrouping

Doughnut, WindRose and Stiff


Doughnut Plot	WindRose Plot

Stiff Diagram or Bar Map

1 Gap Between Bar/Boxes/Doughnuts(in %)
2 Gap Between/Within Subgroups
3 Overlap (%, Negative for Gap)
4 Gap between Bars from Different Panels (in %)
5 Width (in %)
6 Scaling Factor
7 Subset
8 Symbol Offset (in %)
9 Alternating Offset
10 Spoke Style
11 Paddle Increment(%)

Gap Between Bar/Boxes/Doughnuts(in %)

This combination box value controls the spacing between the columns, bars, boxes for each X value, or doughnuts, in units of % of the width of the columns, bars, boxes at each X value or doughnut. The control supports keyboard entry or selecting from the drop-down list.

The default value is 20; accepted values range from 0 to 100. Please note, for a doughnut plot, this option accepts the values from -100 to 100. If the input value is not an integer, it will be rounded up to the next integer. Note:

For a Stiff diagram, Gap Within Bars(in %) will control the gap between the polygons.
For a Bar Map chart, Gap Within Bars(in %) controls the gap between bars for all bar charts.

Gap Between/Within Subgroups

If Subgrouping is turned on for a graph, you can edit the Gap Between Subgroups; if it is a box or histogram chart, another control Gap Within Subgroups (%, Negative for Overlap) will also be avialable to adjust the gap.

To adjust Gap Between Subgroups for a column graph with four plots,

The (Plot Details) Spacing Tab ExampleForGap01.png

When Gap Between Subgroup is 0, there is no gap between "Subgroup 1" and "Subgroup 2";
When Gap Between Subgroup is 100, gap between subgroups equal to gap between bars, this means gap between subgroups will not bigger than gap between bars.
When Gap Between Bar is negative value, Gap Between Subgroup will be disabled.

To adjust Gap Within Subgroups for a box chart with four boxes,

The (Plot Details) Spacing Tab ExampleForGap02.png

When Gap Between Subgroup is 0, Gap Within Subgroup(%, Negative for Overlap) and Box Width can be used to adjust the gap between each two adjacent boxes.
When Gap Between Subgroup is 100, the box width will be 0 and the boxes in same subgroup will be overlapped; When Gap Within Subgroup(%, Negative for Overlap) is 100, the box width will be 0.
Gap Within Subgroups(%, Negative for Overlap) accepts negative values which will make the columns/bars/boxes in same subgroup overlapped.

Overlap (%, Negative for Gap)

This combo box is available in following two cases:

if the data plot is part of grouped plots.
if the data plot is in the first layer of a multi-layer column/bar graph which enables the gap across layers.

Note: For a grouped stacked column plot, in the case of Cumulative or Incremental selected for the Offset radio box in Stack tab, this Overlap combo box will only show when the Use Subgrouping (in Group tab) for Cumulative/Incremental check box is checked.

Type or select a value from this combination box. The value is the percentage of column/bar overlapped at a given X value. The percentage value is the relative ratio between the gap/overlap and the column/bar width. A negative value means space(gap) between columns/bars. If the value is 0, there is no gap or overlap.

The default value is 0. The accepted range is from -100 to 100.

Gap between Bars from Different Panels (in %)

For a multiple-panel plot, such as a trellis plot, you can overlap the panels(which means combine the multiple panels to one single panel) by checking the Overlap Panels check box in the Panel tab.

If you do this for a column/bar trellis plot, you can use Gap between Bars from Different Panel edit box in the Spacing tab to add gap between bars from different panels to avoid them from overlapping.

Width (in %)

Specify a dataset to control column/bar width.

Select a column (dataset) from the drop-down list. Dataset values determine the relative column/bar width, in combination with Gap Between and Overlap settings. Values are multiplied by the Scaling Factor(see below).

Accepted values must be greater than or equal to 0. When Width (in %) is 0, the column/bar displays as a vertical/horizontal line.

Scaling Factor

Use this combination box to define the scaling factor for values in the Width (in %) column.

Enter a Scaling Factor by typing or choosing from the drop-down list. The value can be any positive rational number or 0.

When the Factor is 0, the values in the Width (in %) column determine bar width in terms of X axis scale values .

Subset

Specify whether to divide the plots into subsets; and if dividing into subsets, By Size or By Column (of categorical values).

The Subset group is not available for all grouped plots. For instance, these controls are available for grouped column or scatter plots but are dimmed for Trellis plots, in which grouping is controlled on the Panel tab.

The Subset group is available under these conditions:

The plot has automatically assigned X data (The data plot is named as <autoX, Y> in the Plot Details dialog). There are a couple of situations where X values are automatically assigned but in this context (e.g. a grouped column plot or scatter plot), one or more Group Column(s) are used to construct the X axis "scale".

... and Enable Panel is turned off (on Panel tab, None is selected for both directions).

... OR

The plot is line plot of shapefile data in which Fill Area Under Curve is enabled and Fill Shapes by Orientation (or Fill Shapes by Reverse Orientation) is selected.

... OR

The plot has arbitrary X data, but the Type of X axis tick label is set as Text from Dataset, and the dataset used to define tick labels is the X data.

Enable Subset

None: Do NOT divide the columns into subsets. Note that in this example column plot, columns are evenly-spaced.
By Size: Divide the columns into subsets by a specifying the subset size (generally useful for balanced grouped plots). If Subset Size is set to 0, subset is not used. In the following example, Subset Size = 4 and you can see that there is a larger gap between each group of four columns.
By Column: Divide the columns into subsets by categorical values in a worksheet column (especially useful for an unbalanced grouped plots). Specify your worksheet column using the drop-down list. Note in the following examples, the effect of subset on column grouping (major grid lines turned on for clarity).

Gap Between Subsets(%)

If Subset Size is not 0, you can specify the Gap Between Subsets (%) by either selecting a number from the drop-down list or you can enter a value directly. This is a percentage of the width of the columns/bars.

Note: When subsets are enabled, tick label tables like those shown in the grouped column charts above, are structured using a combination of Subset controls and the Merge Labels setting on the Tick Labels tab, Table sub-tab of the X Axis dialog box.

For instance, in the following example, Subset was set By Column = Genotype and you can see the effect of the Merge Labels setting on Treatment row tick labels.

For more information on control of tick labels, see The (Axis dialog box) Tick Labels tab.

Symbol Offset (in %)

With Box plots you have the option of displaying the distribution of individual data points for each box. Use this control to shift the existing point arrangement in a positive (to the right) or negative (to the left) direction in relation to the box.

For information on displaying and arranging data points in your Box plot, see documentation of the Plot Details Box and Data tabs.

Alternating Offset

Check this box to shift the existing point arrangement by the Symbol Offset, in an alternating fashion (left, right, left, right, etc.) from the center of each plot.