Formatting the Surface in a Surface Chart

This topic describes how you can format the surface of a surface chart.

Right-click any vertex in the surface chart and select Format Surface on the shortcut menu or double-click any vertex in the surface chart. Designer displays the Format Surface dialog box.
In the Fill tab, specify the color pattern to fill the range sections in the surface chart.
Firstly, make a choice for the Self Settings checkbox: when Self Settings is unselected (the default behavior), Designer synchronizes the color pattern that you specify here with the Pattern List property on the chart object in the Report Inspector, which data markers of other subtypes can also apply if the chart is a combo chart; when you select Self Settings, it indicates that the color pattern is private to the current data markers themselves (the range sections in this case), which Designer remembers and applies to the data markers of a new type automatically if later you change the type of the chart. Then, specify the color and transparency of the color to fill the selected range sections in the same data series (to change the color, select the color indicator and select a color from the color palette, or type the hexadecimal value of a color in the text box). You can also select Color List to specify the color pattern for range sections in the same data series respectively in the Color List dialog box.
In the Border tab, select Show Border if you want to show the border of the range sections in the surface chart.
Select Show Border if you want to show the border of the range sections, then specify the color, color transparency, line style, thickness, end caps style, and line joint mode of the border.
In the Path box, specify the fill pattern of the border: Outline Path or Fill Path.
In the Dash box, select to automatically adjust the dash size or use fixed dash size if you select a dash line style for the border.
Skip the Data Label tab because Designer does not support displaying data labels in surface charts.
In the Hint tab, specify the properties of the chart hint (the Show Tips property of the chart paper in the Report Inspector should be "true" if you want to show the hint): specify whether to include the category and series values in the hint, whether to scale big and small numbers, and whether to use customized names for the fields on the value axis in the hint, and customize the names as you want. A hint displays the value a vertex in the surface chart represents when you point to the vertex in Designer view mode, in HTML output, or at runtime.
Select OK to accept the changes and close the dialog box.

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