Formatting Presentations

This lesson teaches you how to use the Presentation Editor to create highly formatted crosstabs and graphs. You will learn how to create both presentation formatting and data-driven formatting.

Overview Topics

Overview
Prerequisites

Topics

Format Crosstabs

Format Graphs

Summary

45 minutes

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Overview

Using BI Beans, you can create compelling and “boardroom quality” presentations with intuitive custom formatting tools.

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Lesson Objectives

This lesson introduces two approaches for formatting business intelligence reporting: presentation formatting and data-driven formatting.

First, you will learn how to apply presentation formatting of crosstabs and graphs. You will learn how to use:

The Crosstab Customizer and the Graph Customizer
The Formatting toolbar to modify selected presentation components
The Property Inspector to change individual presentation properties

Second, you will you will learn how to create one type of data-driven formatting, called Stoplight formatting, Stoplight formatting enables easy identification of exception data.

Data Model

For information on the data model used in the BI Beans OBE lessons, please see the Data Model page.

High Level Objectives

The general business requirements of the BI Beans OBE lessons are described in the Business Requirements page.

 

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In order for this lesson to work successfully, you will need to have performed the following:

1.

Complete the lesson entitled 'Creating Business Intelligence (BI) Objects'.

 

2. Complete the lesson entitled 'Using the QueryBuilder'.

 

Format Crosstabs

In this topic, you will learn how to format crosstabs in the following ways:

Create Titles and Subtitles
Create Header Formats
Use the Property Inspector

Create Stoplight Formats

When you create the stoplight format, you will also modify the query to meet more specifically the analytic requirements of the stoplight report.

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Create Titles and Subtitles

You can add titles and subtitles to a crosstab by using the Crosstab Customizer or the Property Inspector. In this section, you will use the Crosstab Customizer to create a title and a subtitle.

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To add a title and subtitle to the crosstab, perform the following steps:

1.

If the Sales Analysis crosstab that you defined is not already open, right-click Sales Analysis Crosstab and select Open.

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2.

In the toolbar that is located above the crosstab in the Presentation Editor, select the Format Crosstab tool (which is the second tool on the toolbar and appears to the right of the Query Editor tool).

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The Crosstab Customizer is displayed.

 

3.

In the Crosstab Customizer, select the Titles tab. Enter Regional Sales Summary as the title of the crosstab. Note that the Show Title option is automatically selected as you enter the title text.

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4.

Click Title Font to open the Font dialog box. Change the title font properties as follows:

Size: 18
Style: Bold
Color Text: Blue

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Click OK to return to the Titles tab.

 

5.

Enter Stoplight Report as the subtitle of the crosstab.

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6.

Then, click OK to apply the title formats and close the Crosstab Customizer.

 

7.

From the File menu, select Save All to save all the changes. The Sales Analysis Crosstab Title area looks like the following figure:

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Create Header Formats

Header Formats may be used to enhance dimension labels on the page, column, or row headings of a crosstab. In this section, you will create two header formats for the the Geography dimension and one header format for the Product dimension.

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To create these header formats for the crosstab, perform the following steps:

1.

With the Sales Analysis Crosstab displayed, click the Format Crosstab button to open the Crosstab Customizer. Select the Format tab.

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2.

To create the first header format, click the New Header Format button to open the Conditional Header Format dialog.

In the General tab and specify the following format options:

Format Name: Americas
Background Color: Blue

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3.

In the Conditional Header Format dialog, select the Font tab and specify the following format options:

Font Style: Bold
Font Text Color: White

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4.

In the Conditional Header Format dialog, select the Members tab. In the Dimension box, choose Geography.

In the Apply Format to section, choose the Selected Geographies option. In the Available list, select Americas. Add it to the Selected list by clicking the Copy ' > ' button.

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Click OK to return to Crosstab Customizer.

 

5.

To create the second header format, click New Header Format to open the Conditional Header Format dialog.

In the General tab, specify the following format options:

Format Name: Northern America and Southern America
Background Color: Yellow

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6.

In the Conditional Header Format dialog, select the Font tab and specify the following format options:

Font Style: Bold
Font Text Color: Black

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7.

In the Conditional Header Format dialog, select the Members tab. In the Dimension box, select Geography. Choose the Selected Geographies option. In the available list, select Northern America and Southern America. Add these two members to the selected list.

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Click OK to return back to Crosstab Customizer.

 

8.

Now, format the Product headers using the Fomatting toolbar.

Click the Product dimension tile grabber to select all product tiles. Then, click the Fill Color tool on the toobar to change the background color to Red.

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With the Product dimension tiles still selected, click the Font Color tool and select White.

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Finally, click the Bold tool.

 

9.

From the File menu, select Save All to save all the changes. The crosstab should look like the following figure:

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10.

Optionally, you can also create header formats for the top two levels of the European Areas saved selection. These header formats will look exactly the same as the those you just created for the Amearica Areas selection.

Before creating the new header formats the European Areas saved selection, first, replace the current Geography selection by performing the following:

A. Click the Query Editor tool, and then select the Dimensions tab in the Query Wizard..
B. In the choose box, select Geography.
C. Click Remove All Items ("<<") to remove the current selection.
D. In the Available list, click the Saved Selections tab. Your two Geography Saved Selections are displayed.
E. Select European Areas and then click the Add Selected Items shuttle button ('>') to move the saved selection to the Selected List.

Click OK to refresh the query with the European Areas selection.

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11.

Use the Formatting toolbar to create the formats for the European dimension members. Using the Fill Color, Font Color, and Bold tools, specify the following formats:

Dimension Member Background Color Font Color Font Style
Europe Blue White Bold
Eastern Europe Yellow Default Bold
Western Europe Yellow Default Bold

When you are finished, the header formats should look similar to the following figure:

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12.

Click Save.

 

13.

Finally, replace the European Areas selection with the America Areas selection.

A. Click the Query Editor tool, and then select the Dimensions tab in the Query Wizard.
B. In the choose box, select Geography.
C. Click Remove All Items ("<<") to remove the current selection.
D. In the Available list, click the Saved Selections tab. Your two Geography saved selections are displayed.
E. Select America Areas and then click the Add Selected Items shuttle button ('>') to move the saved selection to the Selected list.

 

14.

From the File menu, select Save All to save all the changes.

 

 

Use the Property Inspector

The Property Inspector can be used to modify properties of crosstab components. In this section, you will use the Property Inspector to modify the crosstab grid color and one of the font properties of the crosstab title.

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To format these crosstab elements, perform the following steps:

1.

Select Property Inspector from the View menu in JDeveloper to display the Property Inspector window. If structure window is not open, select Structure from View menu.

The JDeveloper window looks like the figure shown below:

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2.

Select Sales Analysis Crosstab in the Structure window. The Property Inspector is updated to show the properties of the crosstab.


3.

In the Property Inspector, click in the value field next to the gridColor property. Then, click the ellipsis button (...) to open the gridColor dialog. In the Standard Colors box, select color.blue.

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Click OK . Notice that the grid color has changed to blue.

 

4.

In the Structure Window pane, expand Sales Analysis Crosstab and select dataviewTitle.

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5.

In the Property Inspector, select True for the underline property value.

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Notice that the title text becomes underlined.

 

6.

In the Structure Window pane, expand the columnHeader node and select viewStyle. In the Property Inspector, select True for the wordWrapEnabled property value.

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This setting will enable wrapping of column heading text when you resize the crosstab columns.

 

7.

From the File menu, select Save All to save your work.

Close the Property Inspector by clicking its close tool (' X ').

 

Create Stoplight Formats

The Crosstab Customizer enables the creation of various kinds of formats that apply the data body.

One such data-driven formatting feature is the Stoplight format. Stoplight formats let you quickly categorize data into good, bad, and acceptable ranges.

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In this section, you will:

Add the calculated measure Sales Revenue Growth %, which you created in a previous lesson, to the crosstab.
Modify the query by removing the Promotion dimension, and also by removing the member 1998 from the Time dimension selection.
Create a stoplight format that identifies three levels of Sales Revenue growth: growth that is greater than or equal to 30%, between 30 and 0%, and less than or equal to 0%.

Perform the following steps:

1.

With the Sales Analysis Crosstab displayed, click the Edit Query tool to open the Query Wizard. Select the Items tab.


2.

In the Available list, select the Sales Revenue Growth % calculation that you created in a previous lesson. Click the Add Selected Items button (' >') to move the calculation to the Selected list.

As stated at the beginning of this topic, the analytic requirements for this crosstab do not include the Promotion dimension. To remove the Promotion dimension from the query, click Promotion in the Selected list and then click the Remove Selected Items button (' <').

The resulting Items selection for this query should now look like this:

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Sales Revenue Growth % measure calculates percentage growth on Sales Revenue based on data a year ago. Since 1998 is the first year of data, there are no data values on which to calculate percent growth. In addition, there are no data values stored for 2002.

Therefore, for change the Time dimension selection to include the years 1999 - 2001.

A. While still in the Query Wizard, click the Dimensions tab.
B. Select Time from the Choose list.
C. Click Remove All Items ("<<") to clear the Selected list.
D. In the Available list, multiselect the years 1999, 2000, 2001
E. Click Select Items (">") to add the year values to the Selected list.

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Click OK to update the query.

Resize the column widths to view more data as shown here. The text in the measure headings wraps because of the property setting you selected in the previous subtopic.

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Select 2000 from the Time dimension tile and note the changes in the data. Scroll to the right using the scroll bar to view more Product catagory data.

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3.

To create the stoplight format, click the Format Crosstab tool to open the Crosstab Customizer.

Select the Format tab and then click New Stoplight Format. The New Stoplight Format dialog box is displayed.

 

4.

In the New Stoplight Format dialog box, enter or select the following values:

Format Name: Sales Growth Stoplight
Apply Format To: Sales Revenue Growth %
Threshholds: Unacceptable: 0
    Desirable: 0.3

The New Stoplight Format dialog box should look like this:

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Click OK to create the format.

 

5.

In the Crosstab Customizer, select Cell Formats from the View drop-down box to display your new stoplight format.

Ensure that the Hide Data Values for Stoplight Formats option is not selected. If you select this option, then only the stoplight colors, and not the data values, are displayed for the selected measure data.

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Click OK to apply the format to the crosstab.

 

6.

The stoplight format should display the following results:

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Select other members from the Time and Channel dimension tiles and see how the stoplight formatting updates along with the data.

 

7. From the File menu, select Save All. Close the Sales Analysis crosstab.

 

Format Graphs

In this topic, you will learn how to format graphs in the following ways:

Create Titles and Subtitles
Use the Formatting Toolbar
Use the Property Inspector

Also in this topic, you will remove the Promotion dimension from the graph, as it is not part of the analytical requirements of the graph.

In addition, the year 2002 is used for forecasting purposes. Therefore, the year 2002 will be removed from the query.

You can add titles and subtitles to a graph by using the Graph Customizer or the Property Inspector. In this section, you will use the Graph Customizer to create a title and a subtitle.

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To add a title and subtitle to the graph, perform the following steps:

1.

If the Sales Analysis graph that you defined is not already open, then right-click Sales Analysis Graph and select Open.

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2.

In the toolbar that is located above the graph on the Presentation Editor, select the Format Graph tool (which is the third tool on the toolbar).

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The Graph Customizer dialog box opens.


3.

In the Graph Customizer, select the Titles tab. Enter Sales in America as the title of the graph.

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4.

Click Title Font to open the Font dialog box. Change the following title font properties as follows:

Size: 20
Style: Bold
Color Text: Blue

Click OK to return to the Titles tab.

 

5.

Enter Top 5 Products in Photo Division as the subtitle of the graph.

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6.

Click Subtitle Font to display the Font dialog box. Change the following subtitle properties as follows:

Size: 16
Style: Bold
Color Text: Blue

Click OK to return to the Titles tab. Then, click OK to close the Graph Customizer.

 

7.

As you did with the crosstab, remove the Promotion dimension from the graph by performing the following steps:

A. Click the Query Editor tool to open the Query Wizard.
B. In the Items tab, click the Promotion dimension in the Selected list.
C.

Click Remove Items ("<") to remove Promotion from the Selected list.

Still in the Query Wizard, remove the year 2002 from the Time dimension by performing the following:

A. Click the Dimensions tab and select Time in the Choose list.
B. In the Available list, select 2002 and click All Selected Items (">") to add a new Step to the Selected list.
C.

In the second Step, click the Add hyperlink and select Then Remove as shown here:

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.

D.

The year 2002 will be removed from the Time dimension selection, as shown in the Members tab of the Selected list:

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Click OK in the Query Wizard to refresh the query.

The graph now looks like this:

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8.

From the File menu, select Save All to save all the changes.

 

Use the Formatting Toolbar

In addition to the Graph Customizer, the Formatting toolbar can be used to format various graph components. In this section, you will use the Formatting toolbar to change the graph type, modify the graph gridlines and background color, and change the color of the graph data components.

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To use the Formatting toolbar to format the graph, peform the following steps:

1.

To change the graph type, click the Graph Type tool on the Presentation Editor toolbar.

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The Graph Type dialog opens. Select Horizontal Bar as the graph type.

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2.

Then, click the Graph Style tab and select the 3D Effect option.

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Click OK to change the graph type.

 

3.

To remove the gridlines from the graph, click the Show Grid toolbar item, which is a toggle.

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The gridlines are removed.

 

4.

To change the background color of the graph, click in the body of the graph and then click the Fill Color tool.

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Change the fill color to pastel lemon.

 

5.

To change the bar color of 5MP Telephoto Digital Camera, select the bar that corresponds to that product and click the Fill Color tool. Then select the color Red.

The formatted graph should look something like this:

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From the File Menu, select Save All to save your work.

 

Use the Property Inspector

The Property Inspector can be used to modify graph component properties. In this section, you will use the Property Inspector to modify graph Y Tick Labels and Ordinal Axis Labels.

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To format these graph properties using the Property Inspector, perform the following steps:

1.

Select Property Inspector from the View menu in JDeveloper to display the Property Inspector window. If the structure window is not open, select Structure from View menu.

The JDeveloper window is shown below:

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2.

Expand Sales Analysis graph in the Structure window by clicking on the drill ('+') symbol.

To modify the font of the Y Axis Tick Labels, scroll down the list of subcomponents under Sales Analysis Graph, and click y1TickLabel.

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3.

In the Property Inspector, click in the Font property value. Then, click on the elipsis (...) button to open the font dialog box.

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Set the Size to 12, and select Bold. Then, click OK to close the font dialog box. The graph Y1 Tick Labels are updated with the new formatting.

 

4.

Now, modify the font of the ordinal axis labels by following these steps:

A. In the Structure window pane, go to the legendArea folder and select o1TickLabel.
B. In the Property Inspector, click in the Font property value. Then, click on the elipses (...) button to open the font dialog box.
C.

In the Font dialog, set the Font to Arial, the Size to 12, and select Bold. Then Click OK.

The graph now should look like this:

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Close the Property Inspector.

5.

Finally, use the Formatting toolbar to establish two more modifications. Click the Show Grid tool in order to re-establish grid lines. Then, click the Gradient Effect tool item, which is just to the right of the Show Grid tool.

The finished graph should look like this:

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From the File Menu, select Save All to save your work.

You can select new members from any of the dimension tiles to update the graph.

In addition, you can experiment with the graph by using the Query Wizard to select new dimension members, including your European Areas saved selection.

 

Summary

In this lesson, you learned how to create highly-formatted graphs and crosstabs using the Presentation Editor. You learned how to apply these formats by using a variety of techniques, including: (1) the Crosstab and Graph Customizers, (2) the Formatting toolbar, and (3) the Property Inspector with the Structure window.

You also learned how to apply stoplight formatting to the data body of a crosstab.

In the next focus area, Building BI Beans Applications, you will learn how to use the business intelligence objects that you have created in these past three lessons in the creation of BI Beans applications.

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