Bubble Chart

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Bubble charts are a kind of scatter plot that allow you to visualize data with three dimensions: a vertical axis, a horizontal axis, and the size of the bubbles in the chart. In Planview Advisor, bubble charts are customized using the dropdown menus and control options at the top of the chart. We also have a video tutorial on bubble charts here.

Hovering over a bubble will display that bubble's values which determined its size and position in the chart. Clicking on a bubble will drill down into its details.

Chart controls

The projects displayed in the chart are controlled by the project list under the chart. Only projects that are currently visible in the project list will be visible in the chart. The columns visible in the chart also determine what options are available in the dropdown controls above the chart. Essentially, the project list is a bin of pieces and the dropdown controls allow you place the pieces together into the chart.

You use the dropdowns at the top of the chart to select what data appears in the chart. The dropdown options are described in the table below.

Chart Control	Description
Left	Selects a field for the vertical axis. Projects will be placed vertically on the chart based on their values in this field.
Bottom	Selects a field for the horizontal axis. Projects will be placed horizontally on the chart based on their values in this field.
Size by	Selects a field for the size of the bubbles. Projects will be sized based on their values in this field.
Labels	Selects a field for bubble labels. Each project will be labeled with their value in that field if annotations are on.
Group	Groups totals together by a category, creating fewer, larger bubbles. You can ungroup totals by selecting Project in this dropdown.
Color	Selects a field to color the bubbles.
Shape	Selects a field which controls the shape of the bubbles.
Annotate	You have the following additional display options in this chart: Name - Displays the label of all bubbles Value - Displays the value that the determined the size of the bubbles Legend - Displays a legend for the chart. The legend displays the color coding and size scaling.

Chart options

You can use the Chart Options Panel to add additional elements that can highlight or otherwise enhance parts of the chart.

To access the Chart Options Panel:

Open the bubble chart in your portfolio.
Click the three parallel lines icon in the upper-right corner of the chart area.

This opens the Chart Options Panel. The chart options are described in the table below.

Category	Chart Option	Description
Legend Controls	Legend font size	The slider adjusts the legend's font size. Move the slider to right to increase size for better readability or to the left to decrease size and fit more items in the legend.
	Legend on bottom	Check the box to render the legend at the bottom of the chart instead of the right.
	Legend title	Enter a title here to override the default legend title. You can also type a space to have no title.
	Size legend title	Enter a title here to override the default size legend title. You can also type a space to have no title.
Sizing Controls	Annotation font size	The slider adjusts the font size of the optional labels that appear next to each bubble or symbol. Moving the slider left reduces the font size and moving it right increases the font size.
Sizing Controls	Bubble/symbol size	The slider adjusts the size of the bubbles or symbols. Moving the slider left reduces the size and moving it right increases the size.
Axis Controls	Axis label font size	The slider adjusts the axis label's font size. Moving the slider left reduces the font size and moving it right increases the font size. This does not affect the axis tick labels.
	Axis padding	The slider adjusts the amount of padding between the axis labels and the plot area. Moving the slider left reduces padding and moving it right increases padding.
	Axis labels outside	Check the box to display the axis labels outside of the chart area instead of the corners of each axis.
	Left axis label	Enter a label here to override the default left axis label. You can also type a space to have no label.
	Bottom axis label	Enter a label here to override the default bottom axis label. You can also type a space to have no label.
	Bottom axis number formatting	Select an option to override the default bottom axis number formatting.
	Left axis number formatting	Select an option to override the default left axis number formatting.
	Invert left axis	Reverse the order of items in the left axis.
	Invert bottom axis	Reverse the order of items in the bottom axis.
	Left axis range	Enter both minimum and maximum values to override the default range of the left axis.
	Bottom axis range	Enter both minimum and maximum values to override the default range of the bottom axis.
	Hide axis tick labels	When checked, this removes the tick labels from numeric axes. This can be helpful when relative value is more important than actual value.
	Show median left axis value	When checked, this adds a horizontal line where the median numerical value is along the left axis.
	Show mean bottom axis value	When checked, this adds a horizontal line where the median numerical value is along the bottom axis.
	X-axis on top	When checked, this renders the x-axis at the top of the chart instead of the bottom.
	Log scale on left axis	When checked, this renders the left axis with a logarithmic scale.
	Scatter bubbles in swimlanes	When checked, this randomly scatters bubbles in a swimlane or column. This can be useful when many bubbles have the same value on one axis.
Highlighting	Highlight selected items	Outlines the bubbles included in the active portfolio/scenario in blue.
	Highlighting selected labels	Applies bold formatting to annotation labels for bubbles included in the active portfolio/scenario.
	Draw variance tails	Draws a line from each bubble that represents variance from a reference values. This requires a reference portfolio.
	Also draw variance tail bubbles	Draw a second bubble at the end of the variance tail which indicates the variance of the Size By field.
	Show left axis range	Draws whisker from bubbles indicating minimum from reference value.
	Show bottom axis range	Draws whisker from bubbles indicating minimum from reference value.
Pies in bubbles	Select fields for pie wedges	Render each bubble as a pie chart with the specified fields as wedges. Each bubble's size is still determined by the Size by dropdown and the wedge colors are based on the Color dropdown.
	Render donuts	Makes the pie charts hollow, like a donut.
	Sort pie wedges	Sorts each wedge of the pie by size, in descending order.