Marking in Visualizations

The purpose of marking items (for example, bar segments, pie sectors, lines, or markers) or rows in a visualization may be to view details for the item, or to distinguish rows in order to tag, copy, delete, or in other ways manipulate them. Marked rows can either be given an identifying color in the visualizations, or, they can be kept as they were while all unmarked items are faded out:

Use separate color for marked items

Use when?

Result

Selected

Use this type of marking when it is important to distinguish all marked items and see them as a group, and the original colors of the items are of less importance.

Cleared

Use this type of marking when the color of the marked items is important.

Normally, marking items in one visualization will also mark items in other visualizations using the same or a related data table. However, if the analysis contains multiple markings (see below), only visualizations using the same marking as the one you modify will be affected by the marking operation.

Note: If markings are to be reapplied after reloading linked data, you need to specify key columns that can be used to uniquely identify the rows in each data table. See Details on Select Key Columns for more information. When working with in-db data, marking in table visualizations is only supported if the underlying database table has a primary key defined.

Since markings are based on the values included in the item at the time of marking, there may be situations where the addition of new rows to the data causes an update to the item (e.g., increases the number of values in a bar) but the number of marked items is not updated. In this case you may need to redo the marking to include the new values.

To mark a single item:

Click on the item.

Response: The marked item is given a different color or the other items are faded out. Related visualizations are also updated so that items where the marked item is included are set to the marked color.
Note: Marking a pie or a bar is equivalent to marking all the rows that are included in that pie or bar.

To mark one or more items in a visualization:

Click and drag with the mouse to draw a rectangle enclosing the interesting items.

Comment: You can also mark a section on an axis to include all items within that section, see below.

Comment: If you want to mark several items that are spread out in the visualization so that they cannot be enclosed by a rectangular shape, you can use lasso marking instead. Press and hold down the Alt key and draw a shape of any form to enclose the items of interest.

Note: Lasso marking cannot be applied to table visualizations.

To mark items using the legend

The axes settings displayed in the legend can be used to mark items of a certain category. For example, in the scatter plot below, the setting on the Color by axis is used to mark all items in the Spices category, that is, all the green items in the visualization. To indicate in the legend that the Spices category is marked, the other categories, Fruit and Vegetables, are dimmed.

Open the legend in the visualization.
In the legend, move the cursor over the axis category you want to mark.

Response: An axis category that can be used for marking is indicated by a dotted line beneath the category.

Comment: You cannot use the legend to mark items on axes with continuous data. Only categories on the color, shape and series axes can be marked. If coloring rules are applied on a color axis, no matter the data is categorical or continuous, it is possible to use them to mark items.

Select the category to mark all its items.

To mark one or more items using axis-marking:

In a visualization with axes, mark items by placing the mouse pointer in the area of the scale labels and then click and drag with the mouse along the axis.

Response: A rectangle is drawn across the visualization so that you can mark all values between two specified axis values.

Comment: Marking along the value axis in the bar chart is slightly different than normal rectangle marking; Only those bars with the top part of the bar included within the axis-marking rectangle will be marked. This allows you to select bars with heights within a specific span.

To add more items to the marked set:

Press and hold Ctrl.
Click on items you want to add, one by one. Alternatively, click and drag with the mouse around several items (while still pressing Ctrl).

Comment: To add more items using the lasso marking technique, press and hold both Ctrl and Alt when you draw a shape to enclose the items you want to add to the marked set.

Comment: To add more items using the legend, press and hold Ctrl, and then select another category on an axis.

To change the color for marked items (when using a separate color for marked items):

Select Edit > Document Properties.
Click on the Markings tab.
Click on the marking of interest and then click on Edit.....
Change the color and click OK.
Click OK to close the Document Properties dialog.

Comment: If multiple markings are used within the analysis, you can switch between these in the legend or visualization properties of all visualizations.

To use a separate marking color for marked items:

Open the Properties dialog for the visualization.

Comment: This is done by right-clicking on the visualization and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu.
Click on the Appearance page in the list on the left.
Locate the Use separate color for marked items check box and make sure it is selected.

Comment: Clear the check box to keep the color for marked items and instead fade out unmarked items.

Tip: If you always want to use a specific type of marking for a certain visualization type you can change the default setting for each visualization type under Tools > Options. An administrator can also change the company defaults using preferences in Administration Manager.

Unmarking:

Unmark all data by selecting Edit > Marked Rows > Unmark. Alternatively, you can unmark everything by clicking on an empty area in the visualization.
Re-marking any marked items while Ctrl is pressed will unmark them.
Click to mark a new item. If Ctrl is not pressed, only the new item will be marked.

To display labels for marked items:

Open the Properties dialog for the visualization.

Comment: This is done by right-clicking on the visualization and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu.
Click on the Labels page in the list on the left.

Response: The Labels page is displayed. Note that not all visualizations support labels.
Select a column to Label By.
Click the Show labels for: Marked rows radio button.
Click Close.

Comment: If you want to use an image in the label you may need to apply some other settings as well. See the Labels property page for your specific visualization for more information. For example, Scatter Plot Properties - Labels.

To filter to marked rows:

You can use marked items in a visualization to filter to data when you are working with in-memory data tables.

Make sure you have marked the items you want to filter to in the analysis.
Right-click in the visualization and select Marked Rows > Filter To.

Response: Only the marked items remain visible, all other items are filtered out. A new column called "Filtered to at..." with the two values Yes and No is also created in the data table, as well as a corresponding check box filter.

Comment: The new column and filter make it easy to toggle between viewing all items or only the marked items. There is always just one column for filtered to items in the same data table. If you mark items and select Filter To again, the existing column will be updated with the new selection.

To filter out marked rows:

You can use marked items in a visualization to filter out data when you are working with in-memory data tables.

Make sure you have marked the items you want to filter out in the analysis.
Right-click in the visualization and select Marked Rows > Filter Out.

Response: The marked items are filtered out in the visualization. A new column called "Filtered out at..." with the two values Yes and No is also created in the data table, as well as a corresponding check box filter.

Comment: The new column and filter make it easy to toggle between viewing all items or only the unmarked items. There is always just one column for filtered out items in the same data table. If you mark additional items and select Filter Out again, the additional filtered out items will be added to the previously created column. You cannot remove items from the created column.

Using the Keyboard and Mouse to Mark Rows

Using combinations of keyboard and mouse interaction, you can perform more advanced marking. The most common keyboard interaction is to hold down the Ctrl key while clicking and dragging the mouse over a set of items to add these to an already existing marking. You can also "step" between items using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Below is a list of all the keyboard and mouse interaction you can use to mark items.

Action	Description
Mouseover item	Highlight item.
Click on item	Mark clicked item and unmark all other items.
Ctrl + click on item	Toggle mark for clicked item. Leave other items as is.
Shift + click	Useful in table visualizations, where you mark all items between the previously marked item and the clicked item. All other items are unmarked.
Ctrl + Shift + click	Useful in table visualizations, where you mark all items between the clicked item and the previously marked item. Other items are left as is.
Alt + click	Press Alt and click on a column header or row header in the cross table to mark the entire column or row.
Click and drag	Mark items within the drawn rectangle and unmark all other items. When you start to drag, a transparent rectangle is shown indicating the area to be marked.
Alt + click and drag	Mark items within the drawn area of any shape and unmark all other items. When you press Alt and start to drag, a transparent shape is shown indicating the area to be marked. This marking technique, lasso marking, is useful when the items you want to mark cannot be enclosed within a rectangle because of the way they are spread out in the visualization. Note: Lasso marking is not applicable to table visualizations.
Ctrl + click and drag	If none of the items in the drawn rectangle are marked, they are added to the marked items. If all items in the rectangle are marked, they are unmarked. If some items in the rectangle are marked and some not, the marked items will stay marked and the unmarked items will be added to the marked items.
Ctrl + Alt + click and drag	If none of the items in the drawn area are marked, they are added to the marked items. If all items in the area are marked, they are unmarked. If some items in the area are marked and some not, the marked items will stay marked and the unmarked items will be added to the marked items. Note: Lasso marking is not applicable to table visualizations.
Shift + click and drag	Marks the entire line in a line chart if the drawn rectangle contains parts of the line.
Up/Down/Left/Right Arrow key	Mark the first item above/below/left/right of the previously marked item and unmark all other items.
Shift + Up/Down/Left/Right Arrow key	Extend the set of marked items up/down/left/right, unless the next item is already marked. If the item is already marked, unmark the previously marked item.
Ctrl + Up/Down/Left/Right	Move highlight up/down/left/right.
Space	Mark the highlighted item. Unmark other items.
Ctrl + Space	Toggle mark for highlighted item. Keep other items as is.
Ctrl + A	Mark all the filtered rows.
Ctrl + E	Unmark all the marked rows.
Ctrl + I	Invert the current marking.
Del	Delete all the marked rows.
Ctrl + M	Filter to the marked rows.
Ctrl + Shift + M	Filter out the marked rows.

Multiple markings

A marking is what identifies marked rows in the data tables of an analysis. If you have multiple data tables in your analysis, you may want to use different markings for the different data tables. For example, if two data tables are completely unrelated to each other it may be a good idea to use different markings with different marking colors for those two data tables. This would lessen the risk of interpreting the marked data in the two data tables as being related to each other.

If the data tables are related, the marked rows can be propagated using the specified key relation between the data tables, provided that the same marking is used. Setting a marking in one data table does not affect the marking of unrelated data tables. Each analysis can hold multiple markings and each marking can display its own marking color. One or more markings can be used to limit what data is displayed in a visualization.

To define a new marking:

Select Edit > Document Properties.

Comment: You can also define new markings from the Data page of any Visualization Properties dialog.
Go to the Markings tab.
Click on the New... button next to the Available Markings list.
Specify a Color for the new marking.
Specify a Name.
Click OK.

To change what marking to use for a specific visualization:

Right-click on the visualization and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
Go to the Data page.
Use the drop-down list to select a different Marking.

Comment: The Marking selector may also be shown in the legend.