# Customize Chart Appearance

Learn how you can customize the chart appearance by changing these target properties of the chart plot - DataPoint Styles, DataPoint Symbol Styles, LabelTemplate, and ToolTipTemplate.

## Content

You can customize the chart appearance by changing these target properties of the chart plot.

## Custom Labels

### Set Custom Labels for X-Axis

Let us add custom labels in the following chart, where the default labels for the X-Axis show Ship Names since the Category Groups area is bound to [ShipName].
The chart binds to the 'Invoices' table of the Nwind.db. See [Configure ActiveReports using Config file](/activereportsnet/docs/devops/customization/configure-ar) for more information.
![Label Axis](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvchart/label_xaxis.png)

You can customize the X-Axis labels of the above chart as follows to show 'City' along with 'Ship Name'.

1. From the **Category Groups** area, select the field, [ShipName], which is displayed along the X-Axis.
2. In the Properties window, go to **Label** property and set it to the following expression:
    =Fields!ShipName.Value + " , " + Fields!City.Value
3. Now select the **X Axis** and go to **Labels** \> **LabelsAngle** property and set it to say, '45' degrees.
4. Go to **Title** \> **Title** and set it to 'Ship Name, City', to display this text as the X-Axis's title.
5. Preview the report.

The below image shows how the X-Axis labels show customized labels.

![Customized X-Axis Labels](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvchart/customlabel_xaxis.png)

### Set Custom Labels for Chart Data Series

Let us add custom labels for the chart data series in the chart created in the [Create Multiple Line Chart](/activereportsnet/docs/report-authors/report-controls/report-controls-page-rdl-report/chart-page-rdl/plots/line-dvchart/create-multiple-line-chart) tutorial by following the below steps.

1. From the **Chart Data** area, select the [Sales Amount] field.
2. From the Properties panel, go to **Appearance** \> **Labels** \> **Value** property and set the property to the following expression:
    =Sum(Fields!SalesAmount.Value) & " $"
3. Preview the report.
    ![Customized Labels for Data Series](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvchart/custom-label-chart-data-series.png)

### 

## ToolTips

To add a tooltip in a chart with ['Global\_Sales'] as chart data, displayed along the Y-Axis, follow the below steps:

1. From the **Chart Data** area, select ['Global\_Sales'].
2. Set **DataToolTip** \> **Value** and add the expression to display the field; e.g.
    =Sum(Fields.Item("['Global\_Sales']").Value)
3. Set the **DataToolTip** \> **Format** to 'c'.
4. Preview the report.
    ![Displaying tooltips in Charts](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvchart/tooltip.png)

## Conditional Chart Formatting

Select the series data and use expressions as follows in the corresponding properties to see the effect. Refer to the [Create Clustered Column Chart](/activereportsnet/docs/report-authors/report-controls/report-controls-page-rdl-report/chart-page-rdl/plots/column-bar-dvcharts/create-clustered-column-chart) tutorial, with only one series for simplicity.

### FillColor

![Conditional Chart Formatting - Fill Color](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvcharts/chart-formatting-fillcolor.png)

Select the Chart Data series (here [Net Sales]) and from the Properties panel, set the expression of **FillColor** property to the following:

```auto
IIF(Sum(Fields.Item("Net Sales").Value)>450000,"Red")
```

### LineColor/LineStyle/LineWidth

![Conditional Chart Formatting - Line color, style, width](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvcharts/chart-formatting-line-color-width-style.png)

Select the Chart Data series (here [Net Sales]) and from the Properties panel, set the expression of **LineColor**, **LineStyle**, and **LineWidth** properties respectively to the following:

```plaintext
=IIF(Sum(Fields.Item("Net Sales").Value)>450000,"Red","Grey")
```

```plaintext
=IIF(Sum(Fields.Item("Net Sales").Value)>450000,"Double","Dotted")
```

```plaintext
=IIF(Sum(Fields.Item("Net Sales").Value)>450000,"4pt","1pt")
```

For charts such as Line, Radar Line, which are composed of markers or data point symbols, have the properties that can be set for conditional formatting. For example, in [Create Single Line Chart](/activereportsnet/docs/report-authors/report-controls/report-controls-page-rdl-report/chart-page-rdl/plots/line-dvchart/create-single-line-chart) tutorial, we can highlight the markers as shown.

![Line Chart Markers](https://cdn.mescius.io/document-site-files/images/b298aea2-8cb8-4a0f-be88-4f54aa263ebd/images/dvcharts/linechart-markers.png)

To do so, with the Chart Data series (here [Return Quantity]) selected, from the Properties panel, go to **Marker** \> **BackgroundColor**. and set the expression to the following.

```plaintext
=IIF(Sum(Fields!ReturnQuantity.Value)>5,"Red","Grey")
```

Similarly, expressions for **Marker border settings** \> **LineColor**, **LineStyle**, and **Width** can be set.