The User Interface
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Chapter 2. The User Interface

Main Application Interface

We will take a look at a simple example to get to know KChart. Along the way we will also discuss the user interface at length so you will learn about many details of the component.

When you start KChart as a standalone application you get the usual startup dialog where you can choose between different templates or load existing chart documents.



You can choose between various ways to startup KChart. On the left, you can see three options: Recent Documents, Charts templates and Open Existing Document.... The first option lets you choose between recently opened charts, the second is for creating a new chart from various templates and the third is for opening an existing chart with a file dialog.

For now we will start with the default template. Select Charts in the left area and then select Bar Chart in the main template area. Normally this template should already be selected after choosing Charts.

If you decide to always start KChart with a selected template as default you can also check Always use this template.

Click the Use This Template button on the right, under the template preview.



As you can see, there is already some example data present. KChart offers the default toolbar for creating a new chart, saving, loading and printing the chart. The second toolbar offers icons for editing the data, configuring the chart or using a configuration wizard. You can also switch between different chart types with the rest of the icons. Note that some of these chart types also have subtypes.

The menu offers all standard entries, including shortcut and toolbar configuration and page layout for printing.

Note that data editing is not available if you use KChart from within KSpread because all data is provided by the spreadsheet. As a standalone application the Data Editor is an important part of the application.

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