Vertical Axis

Click the Vertical (Z) axis tickmarks, options button on the Surface Specifications dialog to display the Vertical axis dialog. Use this dialog to customize the scaling for this axis. These (and many additional) options can also be set via the Axis Major Units tab and Axis Minor Units tab.

Range. The settings in this box determine the range (i.e., stop and start value) for the vertical axis.

Mode. Choose one of two scaling methods. The method you choose here determines whether the minimum, step, and maximum scaling values of the vertical axis will be set automatically by the program (Auto) or manually by the user (Manual). The steps will be determined by "counting" from the current minimum (value of Minimum). You can edit the step size below (or on the Major Units tab).

Minimum, Maximum. These fields determine the minimum and maximum scaling values for the vertical axis. They are available only if you choose the Manual scaling option (see above) and are dimmed otherwise.

Automatic range options. When you select one or more of the options in this box STATISTICA will automatically apply them to your plot regardless of which mode you have selected above. Select Start from zero to determine the steps by "counting" from 0, even if 0 is not in the current range between the minimum and maximum scaling values. Select Adjust margins to major units to insure your graph margin begins and ends on a major unit. You can also specify the width of your margin (whether the margins of the graph are extremely close to the actual data points or very far away from them). You can choose from Narrow, Medium, Wide, Extreme or Mixed.

Step. The options under Step apply to the step size used on the axis.

Mode. Select Auto in the Mode drop-down box to have STATISTICA determine the step size for you based on the current range, or select Manual to specify the step size yourself.

Step size. Use the Step size field to specify the step size if you have selected Manual in the Mode drop-down box.

Integer step. In some cases it is desirable to apply integer steps starting from zero to the respective axis. For example, if the axis represents a (integer) count such as the number of failures in a study of product reliability, then you may want to select the Integer step check box. Note that this option is not available when Mode is set to Manual, in which case you can specify an integer step size in the Step size field if desired.

Step count. Use the Step count drop-down box to count off the step-sizes starting From 0, or from the current minimum value for this scale (select From minimum). For example, suppose the scale minimum is 0.5, and you selected a step size of 1. If you select to start the step count From minimum, you would see scale values 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc. However, if you select From 0, you would see scale values 1, 2, 3, etc. (while the actual minimum value that can be plotted in the respective dimension is still 0.5).

Number of minor units. The options under Number of minor units apply to the minor units (minor tickmarks) on this dimension.

Mode. Select Auto in the Mode drop-down box to have STATISTICA determine the number of minor steps (tickmarks) per major tickmark or step, or specify the number of minor steps and tickmarks yourself (select Manual).

Number. Use the Number drop-down box to specify the number of minor tickmarks if you have selected Manual in the Mode drop-down box.

Custom Units. The options described here are used to customize the custom units used in the current graph.

Mini-formatting toolbar. Using these buttons, you can easily access the Font dialog, change the font attributes to bold, italic, or underline, or change the font color. You can also cut, copy, paste selected text and undo the previous formatting change. A brief description of each of these mini-formatting toolbar buttons is available in Mini-Formatting Toolbar.

Custom unit spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet, you can type in the numeric value and text for each custom unit on the axis. You can also display a number (as well as the text), a tickmark, and a gridline for individual units by selecting the appropriate cell (Value, Tick, and Grid, respectively). The text of the custom unit can be formatted using the mini-formatting toolbar.