Bar Chart

Overview

Bar charts are a visualization used to display data across categories using horizontal bars. You can use bar charts when you want to emphasize category names, accommodate longer labels, or compare values side-by-side with a layout that is easier to read than vertical columns. Bar charts support grouped, stacked, percent stacked, and trellised configurations, giving you flexibility to analyze multiple dimensions simultaneously. This article explains the requirements for creating a bar chart and outlines the key properties that determine its layout, formatting, and interactive behavior.

Example

This is an example of the bar chart that displays Revenue by Category, using the following Excel sample data:

SalesData.xlsx

The Revenue measure is bound to the Value data binding slot. The Category measure is bound to the Axis (Category) slot. The title has been set to Revenue by Category.

Data Binding

The Data Binding tab lets you map your dataset fields to the chart’s visual elements. The available data binding slots determine what data is displayed and how it appears in the chart.

• Values – Bind the numeric field or measure that determines the size/length/value of each bar, slice, point, or shape. Larger values produce proportionally larger bars/slices/points.

• Axis (Category) – Bind the field whose distinct values define each bar/slice/point category. These values appear along the X-axis, Y-axis, or around the circledepending on the chart type.

• Legend (Series) – Bind the field that determines the grouping shown in the chart legend. Use this to categorize and color bars/slices/lines by an additional dimension.

• Trellis Columns – Bind a field to create multiple charts arranged in columns, each filtered by a unique value in that field.

• Trellis Rows – Bind a field to create multiple charts arranged in rows, each filtered by a unique value in that field.

• Tooltip – Bind additional fields to display as contextual information when users hover over a bar, slice, point, or shape.

• Drill Down – Configure interactive navigation into more detailed data. You can set Drill Down Mode to:

  • Pre-set Targets – Specify fields or charts to drill into when an element is clicked.

  • Pre-set Paths – Define a hierarchical path so users can explore data through multiple levels.

Customize Bar Chart

Simple Bar Chart

A standard bar chart displays a numeric measure along a horizontal axis with categories arranged vertically, allowing users to compare values across discrete categories with an emphasis on category labels. After adding the visualization to the designer and binding your dataset, configure the following fields in the Data Binding tab:

• Values – The measure plotted along the horizontal axis. This slot typically contains numerical data such as totals, amounts, or counts.

• Axis (Category) – The category field displayed on the vertical axis. This slot typically contains categorical data, such as time periods, product groups, or locations.

For example, a simple bar chart may plot Sales Amount in the Values slot and Year in the Axis (Category) slot, producing a straightforward visualization of sales trends over time.

Create a Grouped Bar Chart

A grouped bar chart expands on the standard bar layout by comparing multiple groups within each category. Rather than displaying a single bar per category, the chart divides each category into multiple bars based on a secondary grouping, enabling side-by-side comparisons within the same category.

To configure a grouped bar chart, assign the following fields in the Data Binding tab:

• Values – The numeric measure plotted on the horizontal axis.

• Axis (Category) – The primary categorical field displayed on the vertical axis.

• Legend (Series) – A secondary categorical field used to define groups within each category. Each unique series value is rendered as a separate bar within the category group.

For example, you might bind Sales Amount to Values, Year to Axis (Category), and Product Category to Legend (Series). This produces grouped bars for each product category within each year.

Create a Grouped Bar Chart with Multiple Series

A grouped bar chart with multiple series enhances the grouped layout by displaying the cumulative total of each category as a background reference. This additional context makes it easier to evaluate both individual series performance and overall category totals at the same time.

Configuration begins the same way as a standard grouped bar chart. Once the data bindings are set, open the Inspector Panel and enable Show Series Total under the Series properties. This overlays the aggregate values behind each group, visually emphasizing the total for each category.

Customize the Chart Style

The Chart Style section contains the visual and formatting settings that define the appearance of your column chart. These options are managed in the Inspector Panel and include layout, spacing, color, and stylistic adjustments that help you tailor the chart to your dashboard’s design requirements.

Scenario Name

The Scenario Name is the label shown in Wyn’s Explorer.

• Choose a name that reflects the purpose of the visualization.

• For more details, see Explorer documentation.

Palette

Controls whether the chart uses theme colors or custom colors.

• Off (default): chart uses the dashboard theme.

• On: unlocks manual color selection for each column.

Color Assignments

Defines custom colors when Maintain Color Assignments is enabled.

• Assign colors to individual categories or series.

• Use when theme colors do not meet your design needs.

Graph Opacity

Adjusts the transparency of the columns.

• Default is 100% (fully opaque).

• Lower values create translucent columns for layered or subtle visual styles.

Auto Gap Width

Automatically manages spacing between columns.

• On: Wyn determines optimal spacing.

• Off: manually set Category Gap and Series Gap.

• Category Gap controls spacing between categories; Series Gap controls spacing within grouped columns.

Corner Radius

Rounds the edges of the columns.

• Apply a uniform radius or expand to set values per corner.

• Use for softer, more modern visual styling.

Auto Gradient

Applies a gradient fill to column colors.

• On: Wyn auto-generates gradient effects.

• Off: columns use flat colors.

Padding

Adds spacing between the chart and the scenario’s boundaries.

• Increase padding for a more open layout.

• Reduce padding to maximize plot area.

See Also

• Animation

• Data Visualization

• Interaction

• Title

• Data Labels

• Tooltip

• Axis (Category)

• Value Axis

• Legend

• Series

• Trellis

• Drill Down

• Special Data

• No Data Content

• Layout

• Appearance

Property Reference

Chart Style

Maintain Color Assignments: Toggle this to True if you want to manually assign specific colors to individual data values instead of using automatic color mapping.

Palette: Lets you customize the color scheme applied to the chart. Use the dropdown to choose from available color palettes based on the current Theme.

Graph Opacity: Controls the transparency of the chart. Set to 0% for fully transparent or 100% for fully opaque.

Auto Gap Width: Enabled by default. This controls the spacing between bars. To manually define the gap width, switch this setting to False.

Corner Radius: Adjusts the roundness of the corners on bars. Use the arrow controls to set the radius for each edge.

Auto Gradient: When enabled, applies a gradient effect to the chart colors for a more dynamic visual appearance.

Padding: Adds space around the chart to separate it from the edges of the scenario or dashboard layout.

Data Visualization

• Top N Grouping – When enabled, limits the displayed data to the top N items based on a chosen measure (e.g., top 10 categories by sales). This is useful for focusing on the most significant data points.

  • Additional Option: When this setting is turned on, a Show property appears, allowing you to enter a numeric value for N (the number of top items to display).

  • Default: Off.

• Include All Dimensions – When enabled, ensures that all available dimension values are included in the visualization, even if they have no corresponding measure values. This can help maintain consistent category representation across views. Default: Off.

Data Labels

• Show Data Label: Toggle this on to enable data labels on the chart.

• Display Pattern: Choose a label structure from:

  • Category

  • Series (Value)

  • Category Series Value

  Note: This controls the format, but not which elements are shown.

• Toggle Visibility for Each Element:

  • Value – must be set to true to display values.

  • Series Name – toggle on to display the series name.

  • Category Name – toggle on to display the category.

• Display Mode: Set to All to show all enabled elements together.

• Label Location: Choose between On Slice or Around.

• Same Color as Legend: Toggle on to match the label color with the legend entry.

• Font Settings (same as title):

  • Font family, size (pt), color, weight, and italic styling.

• Show Shape: Toggle on to add a background shape to the label.

  • Upload a Shape Image.

  • Adjust placement and size with:

    • Shape X Center

    • Shape Y Center

    • Shape X Scale

    • Shape Y Scale

Tooltip

Tooltip Mode – Determines how tooltips are displayed when hovering over the chart:

• None – Disables tooltips.

• Data Point (default) – Shows a tooltip for the specific data point under the pointer.

• Category – Shows a tooltip for all data points that share the same category value.

Show Category Tracking Area – Highlights the entire area of the chart that corresponds to the hovered category, helping visually connect related data points.

Show Category Tracking Line – Draws a vertical or horizontal line (depending on chart orientation) across the chart at the hovered category to make it easier to see alignment across series.

Show Point Cross Value Axis – Draws a line from the hovered point to the value axis, making it easy to identify the exact value.

Show Point Cross Category Axis – Draws a line from the hovered point to the category axis, making it easy to identify the exact category.

Axis (Category)

The Category (Y) Axis settings give you full control over the vertical axis of the chart.

• Show Axis: Enabled by default. Toggle off to hide the Y-axis entirely.

• Axis Position: Set the axis placement using the dropdown options: Zero, Bottom, or Top.

Axis Line and Grid

• Show Axis Line: Enabled by default. Controls the visibility of the axis line. You can customize its line type(Solid or Dashed), color, and width.

• Show Grid Lines: Disabled by default. Enable to add horizontal grid lines across the chart, and customize their type, color, and width.

• Show Split Area: Disabled by default. Toggle on to highlight alternating background bands, and define Odd Area Color and Even Area Color.

Labels and Tick Marks

• Show Tick Labels: Enabled by default. Use this toggle to show or hide the axis labels.

• Label Direction: Choose how labels are displayed: Horizontal, Vertical, or Diagonal.

• Label Overflow: Define how long labels behave when space is limited: Hide, Ellipsis, or Wrap.

• Show Tick Marks: Enable this toggle to display tick marks along the axis.

Title and Font Styling

• Show Title: Disabled by default. Turn this on to add a title to the Y-axis. Once enabled, the axis automatically takes the name of the data attribute it is bound to. To change that, you can enter a title in Custom Title.

• Axis Font Settings: Customize the appearance of axis labels and title by adjusting the font family, size, color, weight, and style.

Value Axis

The Value (X) Axis settings let you configure the numerical axis of your chart, typically displayed horizontally.

• Show Axis: Enabled by default. Toggle this off to hide the entire axis.

• Min Value / Max Value: Define a fixed range for the axis.

• Interval: Set custom spacing between tick marks.

• Reversed: Flip the axis direction (e.g., highest values on the left). Disabled by default.

• Axis Position: Choose whether the axis appears at the Top or Bottom of the chart.

Axis Line and Grid

• Show Axis Line: Enabled by default. Controls the visibility of the axis line. Customize the line’s type (Solid or Dashed), color, and width.

• Show Grid Lines: Disabled by default. Enable to display horizontal lines across the chart. You can customize their line type, color, and width.

• Show Split Area: Highlight alternating vertical bands by setting Odd Area Color and Even Area Color.

Labels and Tick Marks

• Show Tick Labels: Enabled by default. Toggle this to show or hide labels along the axis.

• Format: Choose how labels are displayed (General, Number, Currency, Percentage, or Custom).

• Display Unit: Scale values using Auto, None, Thousands, Millions, etc.

• Label Direction: Set label orientation to Horizontal, Vertical, or Diagonal.

• Show Tick Marks: Toggle to display or hide the tick marks themselves.

Title and Units

• Show Title: Disabled by default. Once enabled, the axis automatically takes the name of the data attribute it is bound to. To change that, you can enter a title in Custom Title.

• Show Unit's Label: Enable this option to display a unit label (e.g., USD, %).

Font Customization

• Axis Font Settings: Customize the axis text by choosing the font family, size, color, weight, and style.

Legend

By default, the Show Legend toggle is set to True, which displays the legend on the chart. To include a title for the legend, enable the Title toggle as well. Once enabled, the legend automatically takes the name of the data attribute it is bound to. To change that, you can enter a title in Custom Title. You can customize the title by setting the Font Family (e.g., Arial), Font Size, Text Color, Font Weight (such as bold), and applying Italic styling if desired.

The Title Alignment property allows you to position the legend title to the left, center, or right of the chart area.

The legend is set to Auto Size by default. To manually define the legend size, disable this setting by setting Auto Size to False. You can also control the Horizontal and Vertical Alignment, which are both set to Auto by default but can be changed using dropdown options. To allow legend labels to wrap across lines, set the Wrap Legend option to True.

Series

When you add a data attribute to the Legend (Series) data binding slot in a bar chart, each category on the axis is divided into multiple horizontal bars — one for each series value.

To display the overall total for each group of series bars, enable the Show Series Total option. This adds an additional bar representing the cumulative total of all series values for that category.

The following properties control the appearance and behavior of the series total bar:

• Show Series Total

  Turn this option on to add a total bar that represents the sum of all series for each category.

• Display

  Defines the label used for the total bar in the legend.

• Color

  Specifies the fill color of the total bar.

• Width %

  Controls the width of the total bar relative to the grouped series bars. When set to 100%, the bars touch.

• Show Total Label

  Displays the numeric total value on the total bar. This option is turned on by default.

• Category Name

  Displays the category name (the value bound to the Axis slot) next to the total label when enabled. This is turned off by default.

• Display Unit

  Sets the display unit of the total label. The default value is Auto.

• Position

  Determines the placement of the total label. You can position it either inside or outside of the bar.

• Display Mode

  Controls when total labels appear. You can set it to Auto or All.

• Data Label Font Setting

  Allows customization of the font family, color, weight, and style for the total label text.

Trellis

Use the Trellis properties when you create a Trellis Chart. This can be done in the Data Binding Tab. Drag and drop the attribute to Trellis.

You can set the Padding around the Trellis Chart to control the spacing between the chart content and its edges. You can also define a Trellis Border Color to outline each panel of the trellis. Additionally, the Trellis Font Settings allow you to customize the font family, size, color, weight, and style of the text used in the trellis layout.

Drill Down Setting

• Position – Determines where the drill-down navigation bar is displayed on the chart. Options include:

  • Top left (default)

  • Top center

  • Top right

  • Bottom left

  • Bottom center

  • Bottom right

• Home Name – Specifies the text label for the top-level view in the drill-down hierarchy. The default label is Home, but you can change it to something more descriptive, such as All Regions or Main Category.

• Font – Configures the font family, size, color, weight (e.g., bold), and style (e.g., italic) for all drill-down navigation text.

• Current Level Font Color – Sets the color for the label of the currently active drill-down level, helping it stand out from other levels.

• Other Levels Font Color – Sets the color for labels representing all non-active drill-down levels, allowing users to visually distinguish between the active and inactive levels in the navigation path.