SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook

Scaling the y-axis

After binding a chart to a data set in the spreadsheet, Dashboard Design makes up a scale on the y-axis by default, based on the lowest and the highest values in the visualized data set. The problem with this auto scaling is that it creates a y-axis that doesn't start with 0, which may cause a bad interpretation of the data.

In the following image, the same results are presented in two bar charts. The chart on the left-hand side gives the indication that Product B has performed a lot better than Product A; the bar is more than two times as big! This is of course wrong, as the y-axis starts with $470,000. The chart on the right-hand side shows a version that is way more useful for analysis:

Getting ready

You can reuse any of the ...