Selectors are controls that provide added interactivity in documents, allowing a user to flip through the panels in a panel stack or display different elements or metrics in a Grid/Graph. You can specify a number of properties for selectors, such as how they are displayed, whether users can select more than one item in the selector, and whether the selector is used to filter or slice data.
You should be familiar with the various properties that define how a selector looks and what it controls, such as the target and source. See Defining a selector for descriptions, as well as a list of the available selector types.
A selector must already be added to the document. For steps, see Inserting a selector into a document.
Open the document in Design or Editable Mode.
Right-click the selector and select Properties and Formatting. The Properties and Formatting dialog box opens.
From the left, choose Layout, then specify the desired layout options in the Selector section. Some options are only available for specific selector styles. You can:
Select an option from the DHTML Style drop-down list to specify the style used to display the selector in Interactive, Editable, and Express Mode. For a list of selector styles and examples, see Defining a selector.
Select an option from the Flash Style drop-down list to specify the style used to display the selector in Flash Mode. For more information on selectors in Flash Mode, see Creating an interactive, Flash-only selector.
Display the items in the selector horizontally (on a single line from left to right) or vertically (in a single column). Select Horizontal or Vertical from the Orientation drop-down list.
Select the Allow multiple selections check box to allow the user to select multiple items in the selector.
Allow an item to be selected if the user hovers the mouse over it without clicking. By default, the user must click an item to change the target of the selector. To change this behavior, select the Change Selection on Mouse Over (Flash Only) check box. If the user points the mouse away from the selector without clicking an item, the target reverts to its previous state.
Select the Make all items the same width check box to make all items in the selector the same width.
From the left, click Selector. Specify selector targeting and other behaviors in the options displayed. You can:
Choose an option from the Action Type drop-down list to specify whether the selector is used to select attribute elements, metrics, or panels in a panel stack. For more information on selector Action Types, see Defining a selector.
Choose the source of the selector from the Source drop-down list (only available when the Action Type is set to Select Attribute Element). For more information on the selector source, see Defining a selector.
Choose the target of the selector from the list of Available Targets (only available when the Action Type is set to Select Attribute Element or Select Metric). For more information on selector targets, see Defining a selector.
Choose the target panel of the selector from the Panel Stack drop-down list (only available when the Action Type is set to Select Panel). For more information on selector targets, see Defining a selector.
Choose to filter or slice the data using items in the selector:
The selections made in a filtering selector are used to filter the underlying dataset before the metric values are aggregated at the level of the Grid/Graph that is displayed in the document. To define the selector to filter data, select the Apply selections as a filter check box.
The
selections made in a slicing selector are used to determine which slices
of data are combined and shown in the Grid/Graph. To define the selector
to slice data, clear the Apply selections
as a filter check box.
For more details on the differences, including examples, see
Applying selections
as filters or slices.
Determine how a target displays when no data exists. The Automatically update when there is no data for the current selection check box can be used to automatically update a selector on a panel. For more information, see Determining how the target of a selector displays when no data exists.
To display a message that no data is returned, clear the check box.
To display an item, select the check box.
Determine
whether to allow the user to display all the attribute elements or metrics
in the target at once, by selecting the All option. You can choose to
enable or disable the All option.
Note: This option is not available if the Action
Type is set to Select Panel,
or the DHTML Style
is set to Slider and the Allow multiple selections check box
is selected.
To show the All option, select the Show option for All check box.
To disable the All option, clear the Show option for All check box.
Determine whether or not to display the Total option, which allows the user to display data totals for each item in the selector. For more information on selector totals, see Showing totals in selectors.
To show the Total option, select the Show option for Total check box.
To disable the Total option, clear the Show option for Total check box.
Specify
a name for the All option. By default, the All option is displayed as
(All) in the selector. You can overwrite this by entering text into the
Alias field.
Note: This option is available only if Show
option for All is selected.
Determine how items in the selector are chosen when the document is executed using the Current State and Number of Elements options. For detailed information and steps to specify these options, see Determining how the target of a selector displays (current state). You can:
Select specific items in the selector
Select the first or last few items in the selector
Select all the items in the selector
Unselect all the items in the selector.
Determine whether or not to display data for the attribute elements selected in the selector. Do one of the following:
To display data for the attribute elements chosen in the selector, select Include.
To display data for all attribute elements except those chosen in the selector, select Exclude.
After you have finished defining options for the selector, click OK to apply changes and return to the document.
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