Visual Discrepancies in Exported Bar Charts (PDF & PowerPoint)

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

When utilizing bar charts within Native Reporting, visual discrepancies may occur between the interactive web view (Designer or Reports view) and the final exported document. This behavior typically impacts exports generated in PDF and PowerPoint formats.

Users may encounter one or more of the following formatting rendering issues upon exporting:

• Mismatched Scales and Gridlines: The y-axis scale and gridline intervals displayed in the interactive web view may differ from those generated in the exported file.
• Overlapping Data Labels: Data labels that appear clearly formatted and legible in the interactive interface may become crowded, compressed, or clumped together in the exported document

Note: These discrepancies are limited to the exported file formats and do not affect the underlying data or the layout within the live, interactive web application.

Environment

Clarity PPM 16.x

Cause

This behavior is by design and reflects a fundamental difference in how the reporting engine optimizes visual space for dynamic web interfaces versus static documents.

Rendering Mechanisms

• Interactive Web UI: The interface dynamically adjusts the chart layout based on screen size. To maintain optimal legibility and prevent clutter in smaller viewing areas, the system automatically suppresses (hides) certain data labels.
• Exported Documents (PDF/PowerPoint): To guarantee data integrity and ensure no critical information is omitted in a static format, the export engine is programmed to render all data labels. Because the export utility does not automatically resize the chart container, forcing every label into a fixed, restricted area causes text overlapping and compels the system to recalculate the y-axis scales and gridline intervals.

Resolution

To resolve this formatting discrepancy, you must manually increase the chart widget's dimensions within the designer. Providing a larger canvas area allows the export engine sufficient space to display all data labels cleanly and stabilizes the grid scale.

Steps to Resolve

• Navigate to the Report Designer.
• Click on the affected bar chart to select the widget.
• Manually increase the chart's size by expanding both its width and height.
• Save the changes to your report.
• Re-export the document (PDF or PowerPoint) to verify the layout.

Note: Expanding the widget size gives the static rendering engine the necessary room to display every data label without crowding, which successfully aligns the exported grid scale with the interactive web view.