|
|
Creating Charts Automatically
 |
|
 |
|
| Summary |
Detail |
| Quick Note |
Although the Chart Auto Build tool is so easy to use, it
barely warrants an explanation, certain things do need to exist in Rank Exec in
order that the charts are created with meaningful parameters. |
| What's needed |
Auto Build will create charts within a project. So a project
needs to be created.
Auto Build determines which URL, Search Engine and Search Terms to use based on
the following criteria.
URL -- The URL used will always be the Key URL you defined in the
Project Wizard when setting up the project. If you selected no Key URL, then
Auto Build will not work on that project.
Search Engines -- Auto Build can create a chart for each search engine
in the project. The number of charts it creates will either be the number of
search engines in the project, or the Create Value you set when running Auto
Build, whichever is less.
Search Terms -- All search terms in a project will be used in each
chart. The search terms will be the series and will be listed in the
legend. |
| Search Engines, which comes first? |
As mentioned earleir, The number of charts created is based on
either the number of search engines added to a project or the value set when
creating charts. But what happens if the number of search engines exceeds the
value set in Auto Build? This is where point values comes into play. While
adding search engines to a project you have the option of assigning points to a
search engine.
By assigning relatively high points to a search engine, you are saying, in
affect, that the search engine has more value. Rank Exec comes preinstalled
with points. Google containing the lions share at 1500, followed by Yahoo, MSN,
etc. The more obscure search engines will have a value of 1. You can assign
these points while you setup projects. Note:points are not project
aware. If you change points in one project you change them in all. So, as Auto
Build creates charts, it will start with the search engine in the project
with the highest point value. |
| Using Auto Build |
Aside from the initial setup of a project, Auto Build is so
easy to use, it's barely worth mentioning the steps required.
- Open Detail Chart - From the Rank Exec main menu Chart Views | Detail
Chart...
- Click the Auto Build... button
- Select a project
- Select the number of charts you want created
- Click Build Charts...
Close the Auto Build window. Select the project where you created the chart in
the Project list in the Detail Chart window, then select the chart you want to
view. Click Show Chart.
Some Notes:
- If you just created the project and have not yet run Position Miner, don't
expect to see results as there is no data yet to view.
- If you have many search terms in the project you may get a message that the
Series List is very large. For now, disregard this. You will end up with more
series in the chart than is practical. Although it will not eliminate the
message, you can probably make the chart more readable, if it is a problem, by
editing the chart in Chart Builder and checking "Do not show in legend if
no value".
- If Position Miner has only been run once for this project, the resulting
chart will be an inverted bar graph. Once Position Miner has been run more than
once, you will then see a line graph.
- The newly created chart names will be prefixed with "Chart "
followed by the search engine it applies to. If you run Auto Build in the
future, you do run the risk of overwriting existing charts. If you make changes
to an existing chart, change the name. If you do not make changes, then it does
not matter.
|
| Cleanup |
You can edit a chart now by going into the Chart Builder.
This is done by clicking the button above Auto Build. Before doing this, be
sure to be in the correct project (you cannot toggle between projects in the
Chart Builder screen). Select the chart to edit from the list, make changes and
click the check mark at the bottom to save. |
| |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
