Swap direction of axis with different parameter selections

This is particularly useful for graphs which have a parameter to switch between rank and score (e.g. for league tables or the NSS), to account for the fact that smaller ranks are better and should be shown at the top, but correspond to larger scores. Normally, when putting these on a graph and switching between the two the placement of the best value flips (with the highest ranks shown at the bottom of the graph), which can be confusing for the user. To fix this:

1. Create your graph as usual with a calculated field linked to your parameter selections.

2. Edit this calculated field so that the measure that goes in the opposite direction is negative, e.g. in the example below this calculated field switches between Score, Russell Group rank and Sector rank. I have made the rank values negative as these go in the opposite direction and should have their smallest values shown at the top.

The axis will now appear to be in the right direction but the labels for rank will show as negative. To fix this, right click on the axis and click “format”. Under scale > numbers, click on “custom” and in the box put:

This changes the format of the axis labels to always show the absolute value, hiding the - signs.

Now when switching between rank and score, the best values (ranks closer to 1 and larger scores) always appear at the top of the graph.

Examples of this in action are available in the ‘Sector comparison’ tab of the NSS workbook.