Bar Chart: Bar Z-Index

Question

I am trying to create a vertical bar chart. However, I have run into a small snag.
My chart:
- The X-axis has the next 12 months.
- Y-axis has calculated values.
I have multiple calculated values(bars) for each month(Column). Because of this I need to overlap the bars and show them in order of tallest down-to the shortest.
The problem:
When I overlap the bars it doesn't show all of the bars. The graph draws the bars in order of the timeline. The bar that is earliest in the timeline gets drawn first. Because of this, the shorter bars at the beginning of the timeline get hidden by the taller bars near the end of the timeline.
Is there a way I can sort these bars to show smallest - largest per month in their correct series color?
More Info:
  A bar represents a project that can span multiple months.
Dataset:
Project Name, Month, hours
Proj1, Jan, 5
Proj1, Feb, 6
Proj1, Mar, 6 <-- will be hidden by Proj2, Mar, 7
Proj1, Apr, 5 <-- will be hidden by Proj2, Apr, 8
Proj2, Mar, 7
Proj2, Apr, 8
Proj2, May, 7
I hope this edit makes it a bit more clear.
Thanks for the assistance!
Edited by: Joseph Forsythe on Sep 30, 2008 8:18 PM

Answer 1

Hello -
I use Custom XML to accomplish this. You want to define the format of the <label_settings> tag. Below is sample code fron one of my bar charts. I've separated the <format> tag so you can see it easily. Notice the numDecimals:2 that is what defines how many decimals to show.
     <data_plot_settings enable_3d_mode="false" >
        <bar_series style="Default">
          <tooltip_settings enabled="true">
            <format><![CDATA[{%Name}{enabled:False} - {%Value}{numDecimals:2,decimalSeparator:.,thousandsSeparator:\,}]]></format>
            <font family="Tahoma" size="10" color="0x000000" />
              <position anchor="Float" valign="Top" padding="10" />
          </tooltip_settings>
          <label_settings enabled="true" mode="Outside" multi_line_align="Center">
            <format><![CDATA[{%Value}{numDecimals:2,decimalSeparator:.,thousandsSeparator:\,}]]></format>
            <background enabled="false"/>
            <font family="Arial" size="10" color="0x000000" />
          </label_settings>
          <bar_style>
          </bar_style>
          <marker_settings enabled="True" >
            <marker type="None" />
          </marker_settings>
        </bar_series>
      </data_plot_settings>
...You may be able to do this without Custom XML. There is a decimal places field in the Axis Settings section of the chart attributes, but i'm pretty sure that only affects the axis display settings.
Austin