Using sparklines

Sparklines are typically small graphics, showing a horizontal line connecting several data points without labeling the values on its axes. The purpose of the sparkline is to show the movement of a trend over a certain period. Since its details are not available, the context of a sparkline must be clear to the dashboard user to interpret its meaning properly. This recipe will show you how to configure a sparkline.

Getting ready

Open a new Dashboard Design file and enter the data into the spreadsheet, as shown in the following screenshot:

How to do it...

  1. Drag a Sparkline Chart component into the canvas.
  2. Bind the By Range field to the spreadsheet range from A4 to M5.
  3. Bind the Chart field to cell A1 and bind the Subtitle field to cell A2.
  4. Go to the Behavior tab of the properties pane of the Sparkline Chart component. In the Normal Range Area section, select Normal Range Area.
  5. Enter the value 600 in the Normal Range Low field and enter 1000 in the Normal Range High field.
  6. Go to the Appearance tab and select the Text sub-tab.
  7. Select Show for the Start Value.
  8. Set the Position for this Start Value text to Left.
  9. Select Show for the End Value.
  10. Now go to the Color tab and select all Markers.
  11. Your dashboard should look like the following screenshot:

How it works...

The configuration of the General tab within the properties pane of a sparkline chart component looks like the configuration of a line chart component. But, a sparkline chart component has fewer options here: No axis and no category labels can be defined.

With the Normal Range Area in the Behavior tab, is it possible to illustrate that the values of this series should be between what boundaries. Also, the start, end, the highest, and the lowest values of the presented series can be emphasized.

There's more...

Header labels

Header labels can label two parts of the sparkline chart component: The series name(s) and the sparkline(s). To activate these labels follow the given steps:

  1. Bind the Header Labels field in the General tab to two spreadsheet cells.
  2. Enter the value for the series name(s) header in the first cell, and enter the sparkline(s) header value in the second cell.
  3. Now go to the Appearance tab and select the Text sub-tab.
  4. Select Header Labels. The labels will now appear in the component.

Show low and high values

Besides the start and end values of a sparkline you can also show the lowest and highest values. In the Text sub-tab of the Appearance tab, you can select them to be visible.

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