This month we will take a closer look at how the “Labor Market in Balance” XY chart was put together.

Sometimes we get asked for the Java code to create a simple chart. Once you’ve done it a few times, you forget it can be useful to have this code the first time. So here’s a step-through for building a basic chart that can be included in a servlet, for instance, and returned to a JSP.

You may have an older DialChart template that uses a premade background image that looks something similar to the image below. This old workaround is now unnecessary because the built in border is currently a default feature in DialCharts.

Have you refreshed your charts lately? You may have grown tired of the default look of past versions and you just want to quickly update your templates with something new without spending too much time.

Taco Bell has a great commercial running, promoting the new “burrito bowl.” The chef/actress says something to the tune of, “If Taco Bell wants to show people how they are changing things, they really need to show people.” And that’s the purpose of this post — showing you how Visual Mining is changing things.

Good chart design and dashboard design can become more challenging when you do not know in advance what the data and labels are.

The following post does a nice job showing how rotating a bar chart helps support larger data babels, using real examples.