Create and configure a legend control (Beta)

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This documentation describes a public beta feature and is under construction. This documentation should not be considered part of our published documentation until this notice, and the corresponding Beta flag on the feature in the Sigma service, are removed. As with any beta feature, the feature discussed below is subject to quick, iterative changes. The latest experience in the Sigma service might differ from the contents of this document.

Beta features are subject to the Beta features disclaimer.

Add a legend control to your workbook to align colors and perform interactive selection across multiple charts with shared values. Users only need to click once to filter multiple charts.

For example, you can use a legend control to create one legend for product types that you want to focus on, then target multiple charts. If the targeted charts have color split by the product type category, they can be filtered at the same time and use the same colors as defined in the legend control:

Limitations

You can only target charts that have a color property set by category. The following chart types are not supported:

• KPI
• Box and whisker
• Waterfall
• Sankey
• Gauge

If the column used to define color categories is removed, or if the color is changed to a scale or single color, the legend control has no effect on the chart. A warning appears in the filter menu for the chart element, but the legend control still targets the chart element.

Requirements

• You must have Can edit access to the workbook.

Add a legend control

1. In your workbook, in edit mode, locate the Add element bar at the bottom of the workbook canvas.
2. In the Add element bar, choose Controls > Legend
3. The new control appears on the canvas.
4. In the Properties tab of the editor panel, choose source values for the control. See Configure the control.
5. Specify which charts are affected when the user interacts with the control. See Specify the target of the control.

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Before the legend can be used to interact with relevant data elements, you must select the source of the legend values and specify the target of the legend control.

Configure the control

To configure the control behavior, click Settings, and choose the attributes of the legend control.

You can populate the values used by a legend control in different ways:

• Create a manual list. For your control to work, the list must correspond in some way with the data in the target data elements.
• Create a list from a preset defined by Sigma.
• Use a column in your data.

After setting up the values used for the control, you can perform other configuration steps:

1. Assign colors to values
2. Group additional values as others
3. Decide whether to update the default Control ID. See About control IDs.

Use a manual list

You can create a manual list to set custom values to manage in the legend.

1. In the Properties tab for the control, select the Settings tab.
2. For Value source, select Create manual list.
3. For Value type, specify the data type of the values that you add manually. The data type must match the data type of the columns targeted by the control. Choose between Text (default), Number, Date, and Boolean.
4. For Values, enter a custom list of values to use for the control. Press enter or return to add new values. You can optionally specify a display value to show in the control instead of the raw data value.

After setting up the values for the control, assign colors to values and group additional values as others.

Use a list from a preset

This option lets you choose from a common set of presets: Month names, Weekday names, and Date parts. After you select one of these options, your control is a manual list. You can change it, remove values, and add new values.

1. In the Properties tab for the control, select the Settings tab.

2. For Value source, select Create list from preset and choose one of the preset options:

   • Month names
   • Weekday names
   • Date parts

3. After selecting a preset list, the Value type and Values automatically update. The Value source changes to Create manual list to reflect that a preset list is a pre-populated manual list.

4. Modify the preset list as desired, removing unneeded values and changing display values. To delete a value, hover over the value and select x.

After setting up the values for the control, assign colors to values and group additional values as others.

Use a column from a data element or data source

You can also use a column from a data element or data source to provide the values for the legend control. The data source for the control element should not be any of the targeted data elements, otherwise unexpected filtering behavior could occur.

1. In the Properties tab for the control, select the Settings tab.
2. For Value source, select a data source or data element in use on the workbook.
3. For Source column, the first column of the data source is shown. Select the column to open a drop-down menu and choose the column that you want to use to populate the control.
4. [optional] To use a different, related column, as the display values for the data, turn on the toggle switch to Set display column and choose a display column from the same data source. For example, you might use an ID column as the data source, but a name column as the display value.

After setting up the values for the control, assign colors to values and group additional values as others.

Assign colors to values

Choose a color palette and optionally custom colors to apply to the legend. If you apply a workbook or organization theme, the categorical colors from the theme are used for the legend control.

1. In the Properties tab for the control, select the Settings tab.
2. For Color assignment, choose a color palette to use. Each legend item is assigned a color.
3. [optional] You can customize the color for each legend value by selecting the color, or customize the entire color palette. See Add a custom color scale.

After assigning colors to values, optionally customize how other categories are handled by the legend.

Group additional values as others in a chart

When a legend control targets a chart, values present in the targeted chart column that are not present in the legend are grouped into a separate category by default. For example, a manual list of specific values, or filtered values from a column used as the source. The category is labeled Others, but it can be renamed, or removed.

1. In the Properties tab for the control, select the Settings tab.

2. For Other categories, choose between Use other color (default) and Use legend palette.

   • Use other color allows you to group values in targeted charts that are not represented in the legend with a common label and color. By default, the label is Others and the color is gray, but you can change the label and color.
   • Use legend palette applies the colors used by the color palette selected in the Color assignment section to the values not represented in the legend.

Specify the target of the control

Add targets to a control to specify which data elements and data sources to filter:

1. Select the control, then in Properties, click Targets.

2. Click + Add interaction target.

3. Select one or more charts in your workbook that you want the legend to apply to.

   Each selected chart appears under Targets, and the count of targets for the control increases. For each chart targeted by this control, any existing legend is hidden.

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   You can show any individual chart legend after targeting a chart with a legend control.

4. Update the column targeted by the control. By default, the control targets the column used to manage the chart color. To change the target column, click the current column and choose the new target column.

   As you change the target column, the default name of the control updates to match the selected column.

Format and design a legend control

You can format and design the legend control to match the styling of your workbook.

To review and update the formatting options, select the control, then select the Format tab.

Update the element style

You can customize the style of the element, such as the background. See Customize element background.

Update the control label

Format legend control

You can format the appearance of the legend control:

1. After selecting the legend, select the Format tab.
2. Select Legend to review and modify the relevant options: