6.10.1 Box Plot

Summary

This tutorial demonstrates how to create the following box plot with the data points and distribution curves both.

Tutorial Box Plot 001.png

Minimum Origin Version Required: Origin 2015 SR0

What you will learn

This tutorial will show you how to:

  • Create a data overlapped box plot
  • Customize box plot settings
  • Change the layer background

Steps

This tutorial is associated with :<Origin EXE Folder>\Samples\Tutorial Data.opj.

  1. Open Tutorial Data.opj and browse to the Box Plot folder in Project Explorer (PE).
  2. Activate the BoxData worksheet, select the January(Y), February(Y), and March(Y) columns and plot them as a Box Chart using Plot > Statistical: Box Chart.
  3. Double-click on one of the box charts to bring up the Plot Details dialog. In the Group tab select None from the Border Color drop-down list and use Apply to save the changes. This prevents the border colors of the box plots from automatically incrementing.
  4. In the Box Tab, set as shown below to enable the data plot to the left of box:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 01.png
  5. The Data tab shows up because data plot is also included in the plot. In this tab, change the settings as shown below to create a distribution curve and change the binning options:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 02.png
  6. In the Pattern tab adjust the settings as shown below. To create a custom color, expand the Color option, click the vacant color under the Custom controls to open the Colors dialog. In the Custom tab of this dialog box, enter the Red, Green and Blue values to define your favorite color as below:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 03.png
  7. In the Lines Tab set the line style for Whisker. The style of caps is set to "Auto" so it follows the Whisker style, and the style for Median Line and Distribution Curve follows the box style set in the Pattern tab:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 04.png
  8. The next step is to customize the data symbols in the Symbol tab:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 05.png
  9. The style of the Percentile points is also changed in the Percentile tab:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 05b.png
  10. The next step is to change the background color. In the same Plot Details dialog, select Layer 1 in the left panel to activate the tabs of layer level. If the left panel is not expanded use the Plot Details Expansion.png button on the bottom left of the dialog to expand it. In the Background tab, expand the Color option, click the vacant color under the Custom controls to open the Colors dialog. In the Custom tab of this dialog box, enter the Red, Green and Blue values to define your favorite color. Here, let us make the color(R:177, G:237, B:254). Click OK to accept the setting and close the dialog.
  11. In order to customize the axes, double-click on the Y Axis to open a Axes dialog box and on the Scale tab, set the following axis scale specifications:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 06.png
  12. Go to the Title tab, select Left' icon in the left panel, change the Y axis title to Discharge [ft\+(3)/sec]:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 06b.png
  13. On the Title tab, choose Bottom icon in the left panel. Then check the Show check box, and change the X axis title to Month
    Tutorial Box Plot New 06c.png
  14. Open the Grids tab, select Horizontal icon in the left panel, enable the Major Grid Lines and set their styles as below:
    Tutorial Box Plot New 07a.png
  15. Click OK to save the settings and close the dialog. Select View: Show: Frame menu to add the frame to this graph.
  16. The legend can be deleted if desired by selecting it and pressing the delete key.
  17. Right-click the layer and select Add/Modify Layer Title from the menu that appears. Enter the text Water Discharge at Station 120011 in the edit box. Existing layer titles and axes titles can be modified by double clicking on them till the text cursor appears.