# The &kchart; Handbook

Jonathan Drews

    j.e.drews@att.net

Matthias Kalle Dalheimer

    kalle@kde.org

Developer
&FDLNotice;
2002-07-20
1.01.00

&kchart; is an application for drawing bar graphs, pie charts and line plots. It is intended to be used with &kspread;. &kchart; is still under development so some features do not work.

KDE kdeutils Kchart chart graph plot

## Introduction

&kchart; is intended primarily for use with &kspread;. It is currently undergoing revision and should be considered beta software.

### Plotting with &kchart;

To plot with &kchart;, when it is embedded in &kspread;, do the following:

Picture of toolbars dialog

- Highlight the second row of numbers.

- Next click on the Chart button to create the chart.

- Select the options you want from the chart Wizard. The chart Wizard will pop up after you insert the chart.

To make a bar chart for individual items, put the numbers in a column, as shown below.

Picture of toolbars dialog

The orientation of the numbers detremines how the plot will be made.

- A row of numbers defines the ordinates for a single plot.

- A column of numbers defines the heights for each bar, in a bar graph. It also determines the size of the slices in a pie chart.

## Command Reference

### The main &kchart; window

#### The File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New

  Creates a new document

&Ctrl;O File Open...

  Opens a document

File Open Recent

  Opens a recently saved document

&Ctrl;S File Save

  Saves the document

File Save As

  Saves the document with the specified format

&Ctrl;P File Print

  Prints the document

  Make sure the proper print system is selected in the Print system currently used: section. This option can be seen after clicking on the Expand button.

File Print preview

  Displays a picture of what the printed document will look like.

File Document Information...

  Opens a dialog box where you can enter information about your chart.

  This document information will be displayed in the &konqueror; file browser as a tool tip. The tool tips are pop-ups that show the contents of a file when you move your mouse over the file icon.

File Send File...

  This feature does not work properly. Do not use it.

&Ctrl;W File Close

  Closes the current chart.

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &kchart;

#### The Edit Menu

Edit Customize with Wizard...

  Allows you to specify the chart type.You can also insert titles and change the fonts, with the Wizard.

Edit Edit Data...

  Table for entering the data.

Edit Configure...

  Dialogs for configuring the chart.

##### The Configure Tabs

Colors

  Select graph colors, grid colors and title colors here.

Font

  Select font style and size here. The series colors can be selected here also. The series refer to the individual graphs. Each graphed set of data is a series

Background

  Select the background color for your graph.

  The picture backgrounds do not work at this time

Legend

  Change the location of the legend box. The color of the legend box can be changed also. The legend box contains the color key to the graph series.

Axes

  The axes can be turned on or off here.

  Not all the features work here.

3D Parameters

  The perspective for the 3d bar graphs can be set here.

Chart Subtype

  Changes the arrangement of bar graphs.

Header/Footer

  Enter the titles you want for your graphhere.

#### The Settings Menu

Settings Load Config

  Loads a previously saved configuration.

Settings Save Config

  Saves the configuration you set up in Edit Configure.

Settings Default Config

  Loads the default configuration.

Settings Show File Toolbar

  Displays the file toolbar for fast access.

Settings Show Chart Toolbar

  Displays the toolbar for the different charting styles (Pie Chart, Bar Chart, Area Chart and so on).

#### Configuring Shortcuts

The Settings Configure Shortcuts... allows you to specify key bindings

Below is an example of how to configure a short cut for opening the chart wizard.

Picture of shortcut dialog

- Click on the Custom button.

- Next click on the Primary button.

- Do `&Alt;&Ctrl;W` and the dialog should disappear. The key binding is now entered.

Pressing the keys `&Alt;&Ctrl;W` now opens the Wizard.

#### Configuring Toolbars

The Settings Configure Toolbars... Is used to add additional buttons to the toolbars.

Picture of toolbars dialog

- To add a button to the File toolbar,

  Picture of toolbars dialog

  make sure File <KOfficeShell> is displayed in the top combo box.

- Click on one of the items in the left hand pane. This item will now have a blue background showing that it has been selected.

- Next click on the Right arrow button to place it in the right pane.

- Click on `Apply` and then click on `OK`

The new Item should be in the toolbar.

#### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Questions and Answers

&reporting.bugs; &updating.documentation;

Can &kchart; accept text files of data, such as columns of numbers, for plotting?

No. At this time &kchart; can only make graphs from inside &kspread;.

Why do some of the commands from the Edit Configure... menu not function?

&kchart; is still under development and some features do not work.

## Credits and License

&kchart;

Program copyright 1998-2002 Matthias Kalle Dalheimer kalle@kde.org

Contributors:

- Laurent Montel lmontel@mandrakesoft.com

- Karl-Heinz Zimmer khz@kde.org

Documentation copyright 2002 Jonathan Drews j.e.drews@att.net

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kchart;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Requirements

In order to successfully use &kchart;, you need &koffice; 1.2 and Qt-3.0.5.

All required libraries as well as &kchart; itself can be found on The &koffice; home page.

You can find a list of changes at http://www.koffice.org/kchart/.

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;
&documentation.index;