cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Choose Language Hide Translation Bar

Lock Graph Annotation Size/Position

Status: New Submitted by on ‎11-29-2018 03:14 PM
2 Comments (2 New)

In Graph Builder charts I frequently place text box annotations on top of the charts.  When I add more charts, change the scale, or resize anything, I notice the annotation moves around and resizes itself automatically to try to stay where it thinks I want it to be.  But I find that the annotation never ends up where I want it, so I have to go move it again manually anyway.  Also, when the annotation text box resizes itself, it sometimes shrinks to a tiny sliver.  The text is still visible, but it is impossible to click on it to resize it or delete it.

 

I think the Text Box feature needs to be fixed so it never allows the text box to be shrunk to zero width or height.  I would consider this a bug.  After this happens it becomes impossible to change or remove the text boxes using the GUI; you basically have to start over and rebuild the graph.  Of course, you always can "save script to data table" and then edit the script to remove the offending text boxes, but this is not very user-friendly.

 

It would also be nice if we had an option to lock the size and position of a text box (or line, shape, etc...) so it does not move or resize with the chart underneath it.

2 Comments
nascif_jmp
Level VI
‎06-21-2019 05:45 PM
‎06-21-2019 05:45 PM

The "shrunk to zero" issue has been fixed in JMP 15.0, please give it a try when it comes out (very close now) and let us know.

Also in JMP 15.0, there is now a "Fixed Size" menu option.  The size will be automatically locked once you change it manually, and you can change that later.

We will look into locking position as well, thanks for the suggestion.

nascif_jmp
Level VI
‎12-17-2020 10:59 AM
‎12-17-2020 10:59 AM

Regarding the "Fixed Position" part of the request, you can use a menu option called "Reanchor" to achieve that effect.

Anchoring is how JMP decides if an annotation will be affected by transformations associated with user interaction such as moving the axis around, increasing the graph area size, etc.

Annotations that are anchored to the graph are affected by these actions. And annotations are, by default, anchored to the place where they are created.

So what we want is change the anchor to a place outside the graph, which requires moving the annotation and using the Reanchor command available from the annotation RMB.

reanchor.png

The usage is a bit tricky, requiring multiple steps:

  1. create the annotation, as usual
  2. move the annotaion outside of the graph area
    1. Make sure the top left corner of the annotation is outside of the graph. Until that happens, the Reanchor command will be greyed out.
    2. The best place to move the annotation is the right side of the graph, below the legend. This is just a temporary location.
  3. RMB on the annotation and click on the Reanchor command
  4. Move the annotation back to the desired position in the graph.

Note how using the axis to move the graph contents around or changing its size will no longer affect the annotation size or position.

The video below illustrates those steps (though unfortunately, the annotation RMB menu is not displayed).

(view in My Videos)