One of the huge enhancements to Mekko Graphics 5 is the new and improved Preference Manager. We’ve given the Preference Manager a face lift, and the result is that creating and customizing your Mekko Graphics charts is now even faster and simpler. The new Preference Manager puts you in the driver’s seat, allowing you to set your color and pattern style defaults and have more customization options in chart creation.
Let’s take a closer look.
Color Palette Flexibility
There are four tabs: Colors, Settings, Regions, and Advanced. Within the Colors tab, there are now four subtabs: Multicolor, Black and White, No Shading, and Gantt Colors.
This means that Mekko Graphics 5 Preference Manager now includes the ability to set your color palette and draw order, not only for multi-color charts, but also for black and white charts and for single shaded charts (no shading), including the default color for the lines in your line charts. And our default palette for Mekko Graphics 5 is much improved, offering more colors, including the ability to set highlight colors.
Default Flexibility
The Settings tab now allows you to select the Mekko Graphics default setting for chart style and pattern style, as well as your defaults for maximum, minimum, and minimum SmartPlace font size. So, for example, if you never create single shade or black and white charts, you can set your default to multi-color and all your charts will automatically draw as multi-color.
Patterns Flexibility
You also have a choice of pattern style now. You can define your pattern style for your charts as: No Patterns, Extended Mekko Graphics or Mekko Graphics. If you never want patterns to draw on your chart, select No Patterns. For the same functionality of Mekko Graphics 4, select Mekko Graphics. We actually recommend our new pattern style called Extended Mekko Graphics. This pattern style uses a newer, smarter method to determine when patterns will appear on your charts. The advantages of this pattern style are most apparent when you have charts with a large number of series. Once patterns start to appear on charts, fewer series will contain patterns in your chart, and those patterns will be more evenly distributed than the Mekko Graphics pattern style.
Regional Flexibility
The Regions tab allows you to select the Mekko Graphics default setting that corresponds to your geographical area. Each region has a pre-defined setting for
Font typeface - for both Latin and Asian font
Negative number format
Decimal Separator
Thousand Separator
Y axis Title Orientation
Y axis Prefix/Suffix Value
You can choose the region from the pre-loaded drop-down list and Mekko Graphics will automatically reset your Preference Manager settings for that region. You may also overwrite those settings by choosing the Customized radio button and creating a custom definition for your region. Customized settings in this tab are saved for each region.
Chart Update Flexibility
Once you use the Preference Manager, those changes will affect future charts that you create or edit. It will not automatically change charts you have already created. For existing charts, you can apply our new Preference Manager settings by opening the chart and choosing
.
This function allows you to take the active Preference Manager settings and apply them to your chart. To update an entire deck without opening each chart individually, simply click “Update All Charts” from your PowerPoint ribbon toolbar.
We’d love to hear your feedback on the new features. Contact us at support@mekkographics.com with your comments. Or ask a question on our Mekko Graphics Forum . Thanks.
