Tips, best practices, and answers to common questions about displaying charts and graphs in your reports. Covers chart sizing, margins, font size, and fixes for common display issues.
This article provides general guidance for getting charts and graphs to display correctly in your reports. Whether you're working with spider charts, bar charts, polar charts, or other graph types, the tips below will help you get the best results.
Choosing the right width and height for your chart can prevent many common display issues such as cut-off labels and overlapping text. Use the Width and Height parameters to override the defaults.
Default Dimensions by Chart Type
Chart Type
Default Height
Default Width
Spider / Polar
500px
500px
Vertical Bar
280px
560px
Horizontal Bar
300px
600px
Sizing Tips
Spider and Polar charts: These charts typically have labels extending outward on all sides. Setting the width greater than the height gives the labels more horizontal space. For example, use Width=700 Height=500.
Horizontal bar charts: Ensure the chart is wide enough for value labels to display outside the bars. If numbers overlap the bars, increasing the YAxisMax value can help (see FAQs below). You can also use the BarSize parameter to control bar thickness (20-40px is typical, 30 is average).
General guidance: Start with the default dimensions and adjust incrementally. If content is being cut off on any side, try increasing the dimension in that direction.
Tip: When adjusting chart dimensions, upload your changes and run the report to preview the result. Small adjustments can make a big difference.
Understanding Margins
Margins add space around the chart area, giving labels and text room to display without being cut off. You can set margins for each side independently: left, right, top, and bottom.
Default Margin
The system default margin is 50 pixels. If you haven't specified a margin, the chart uses this default on all sides. The margin parameters are:
MarginLeft=n
MarginRight=n
MarginTop=n
MarginBottom=n
When to Increase Margins
Labels or section names are being cut off at the edge of the chart
You have longer-than-average label text on your spider or polar chart
Text is overlapping with the chart border or surrounding content
How to Set Margins
In your Word document template, click your cursor within the curly brackets of the merge string you want to edit. This will bring up your merge string parameters in the Merge Manager.
From Options, select either left, right, top, or bottom margin.
Type the pixel value you want in the margin field. We recommend starting with 60 and adjusting upward if needed.
Switch back to the Document tab of the Merge Manager and press Upload to Brilliant Assessments.
Run your report again to review the changes.
Note: Margins add space around the entire chart area. They do not affect the spacing between individual bars or data points within the chart itself.
Font Size Considerations
The FontSize parameter controls how large the text appears on your chart labels, axis values, and legend. Choosing the right font size is a balance between readability and fitting everything within the chart area.
Larger font sizes improve readability but may cause labels to overlap or get cut off, especially on spider and polar charts with many categories.
Smaller font sizes fit more text but may be difficult to read in printed reports.
If labels are overlapping or being cut off, try reducing the font size or increasing the chart dimensions and margins to compensate.
Tip: A font size of 12 is a good starting point for most charts. Adjust up or down based on the number of labels and the chart dimensions.
FAQs & Common Issues
Use the sections below to find solutions to common chart display issues.
+ My spider
or polar chart labels are cut off. How do I fix this?
This usually happens when labels extend beyond the chart's allocated
space. There are two ways to fix this:
Option 1: Increase the margins
Click your cursor within the curly brackets of the merge
string to open the Merge Manager.
From Options, select the margin direction
where the label is being cut off (e.g., left
or right).
Enter a pixel value. Start with 50 and increase
if needed.
Upload to Brilliant Assessments and re-run the report.
Option 2: Make the chart wider than it is tall
Spider charts often need more horizontal space because of labels
on either side. Try setting the width larger than the height,
e.g., Height=500 Width=700.
+ A score near
the edge of my spider graph isn't displaying.
When a score is very close to the maximum value (e.g., 100%),
it can sit right at the perimeter of the graph and may not render
visibly.
To fix this, increase the YAxisMax value in
the Merge Manager to slightly above 100. For example, set it
to 105 or 110. This extends
the graph's range, giving scores at or near the maximum enough
space to display clearly.
+ The numbers
on my horizontal bar chart are overlapping the bars.
When a bar's value is close to the axis maximum, the numeric
label can appear superimposed on top of the bar instead of to
the right of it.
To fix this, increase the YAxisMax value from
100 to 110 in the Merge Manager.
This extends the axis range so that value labels have room to
display outside the bars.
Adjusting the chart width or right margin alone typically won't
resolve this, as those settings affect the overall chart area
rather than the axis range.
+ My section
or subsection names aren't displaying fully on my spider chart.
Long section or subsection names can get truncated on spider
charts when there isn't enough space. Try the following:
Set the width of the chart greater than
the height (e.g., height 300, width 400).
Increase the margins beyond the default
of 50. Try values like 60 or 70
and adjust from there.
If names are still getting cut off, they may simply be too
long. You can shorten the Display Name of
the section, subsection, or question in the assessment
builder.
+ My spider
or polar chart is not centered — it's aligned to
the left in Word.
Spider and polar charts default to the left edge in Word. To
shift the chart over and center it, you can use a
table as a spacer:
Add a table with one row and
two columns.
Leave the first column empty — this creates
the space on the left.
Adjust the width of the first column until the chart lines
up nicely. Around 3 cm usually
does the trick.
Paste your spider/polar chart merge string into the
second column.
Remove the table borders so they don't show
in the report.
Example:
+ How do I remove
the axis lines from my chart?
To remove the axis lines, set the YAxisIncrement
to the same value as the YAxisMax. This eliminates
the intermediate gridlines, leaving a
cleaner chart.
For example, if your YAxisMax is 100,
set YAxisIncrement to 100 as well.
The image below shows a default chart (top) compared to the same
chart with YAxisMax=100 and
YAxisInc=100 (bottom):
+ How do I remove
the Y-axis numbers from my chart?
To hide the Y-axis numbers (e.g., 0%, 25%, 50%, etc.), set
YAxis=N in your merge string. This removes the numeric
labels along the axis while keeping the bars
and value labels intact.
+ How do I remove
the end axis line from my chart?
To remove the line that appears at the far end of the axis (the rightmost
vertical line on a horizontal bar chart), set the
YAxisIncrement to a value
greater than the YAxisMax. This
prevents the axis from drawing a line at the maximum value.
For example, if your YAxisMax is 100,
set YAxisInc to 110.
+ How do I overlay
a chart on top of a background graphic?
You can overlay a chart on a background image by placing the chart
merge string in a table cell and setting the background image to
wrap Behind Text in Word.
For a step-by-step guide, see the
Scatterplots
article, which walks through this technique in detail.
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