Using Hover Boxes in the Chart & Graphs for Version 8.0

About OnePager Hover Boxes

Illustrations used in this article are from OnePager Pro using data from Microsoft Project but the features, function, controls, and manual edits apply equally to other OnePager editions that import from data sources like Microsoft Excel, Smartsheet, Oracle Primavera P6, Planisware Enterprise, Asana, and Wrike.

All editions of OnePager provide a Hover Box tool that is useful when editing the chart area and graph areas. Additionally, the Hover Box is available in Presentation mode. This article has links to the more detailed articles that provide information on how to use the Hover Box.

Hover Boxes Checkbox Control on the OnePager View Tool Bar Tab

The Hover Box is a feature that can be turned ON and OFF with a control on the OnePager View tool bar tab as shown below:

Hover Boxes in the Chart Area

Checking the Hover Boxes checkbox ON enables the Hover Box feature allowing you to use the Hover Box to examine task bars and milestone symbols properties and obtain the values found in Graphs as shown below:

Hover Box Example in the Chart Area

Above, the standard Hover Box shown in the chart area displays the Start/Finish dates of the task bar being hovered over along with the task bar’s Name Label and Unique ID.

Hover Boxes in the Graph Area

When the Hover Box is turned ON and the document contains a Graph area, the Hover Box can be used to display cost field name and value as well as the timespan in which the mouse cursor is placed as shown below in the next series of illustrations.

Hover Box Example in the Graph Area – Line Graph

In the illustration above, the Hover Box is present when the mouse cursor is positioned on a graph data point. The Hover Box contains the cost field name, the amount, and the timespan.

Hover Box Example in the Graph Area – Area Graph

Above, the Hover Box displays the quarterly timespan’s cost for the quarter that the mouse cursor is moved through in the Graph area.

Hover Box Example in the Graph Area – Stacked Column Graph

For graphs that are stacked the Hover Box provides the cost field name, value, pivot field value, and timespan as shown above where the mouse cursor is placed in Q1-2026 in the segment of the column graph for Team 1.

A Note on Hover Boxes and Data Cells

The Hover Box is the Graph area is not active when the mouse cursor is on or passes through Data Cells as the contents of the Data Call and the Hover Box would be redundant.

Hover Boxes in Presentation Mode

In the illustration below, the chart is in Presentation Mode, the Hover Box is located in the top graph area where the mouse cursor is positioned specifically on the line graph’s data point. In this position, the Hover Box shows the graph’s Field’s value in the case the Field’s name is Cost and that value for the selected timespan is a Quarter.

Hover Box Example in Presentation Mode

Hover Boxes Checkbox Control in the Template Properties and Chart Properties Form

The Hover Box can be turned ON and OFF in the Template Properties and Chart Properties form’s Advance tab’s Display options control group as shown below in the Chart Properties form:

Checking the Show hover boxes checkbox ON in the Template Properties form enables the Hover Box in all documents created with the Template Properties form. Turning the Show hover boxes checkbox ON in the Chart Properties form enables the Hover Box globally for the document using the Chart Properties form. When the Show hover boxes checkbox is checked OFF in the Advanced tab of the Template Properties and/or Chart Properties form, the Hover Box can always be re-enabled by checking the Hover Boxes checkbox after the document is created in the OnePager View tool bar tab’s Graph Elements control group as discussed above.

Hover Box Controls in the Comment Boxes Tab

Hover Box option controls are provided in the Template Properties and Chart Properties form’s Comment Box tab’s Hover Boxes control group as shown below for the Chart Properties form:

There are two sub-control groups in this tab as explained in the following sub-sections.

Hover Box – Font Properties Control

In the illustration above, Hover Box controls occupy the Hover Boxes control group in the Comment Boxes tab of the Chart Properties form. The controls are limited to accessing the standard Font properties form by clicking the Font dropdown arrow as shown here:

When the Font properties form is accessed you have controls for changing the Font type, color, size, Bold, Italics, and Underscore.

Hover Box – Display Text Controls

The Display Text sub-control group in the Hover Boxes control group provides the capability to alter the contents of the Hover Box when it is accessed in the chart area for task bars and milestone symbols. The default option as shown below is the Dates, Name, and Unique ID radio button as shown in a previous illustration. The alternative option in the Display Text sub-control group is the Custom field: option where you can select from the source plan fields (columns) in the dropdown list the source plan field (column) that you want the Hover Box to show when hovered over a task bar or milestone symbol as shown in the example below:

Source Plan Field Select for Custom Field:

If the Unique ID field is selected, the Custom field: window looks like this:

Unique ID Field Selected from the Custom Field: Dropdown List

When the Unique ID is used in the Hover Box in the chart area, the Hover Box only shows the Unique ID value as shown here:

Hover Box in the Chart Area Using the Custom Field:

Hover Box Controls When the Hover Box is in the Top or Bottom Graph Areas

The Hover Box control for Display Text does not apply to the Hover Box when hovering over graph data points. However, the Font control in the Hover Boxes control group of the Comment Boxes tab in both the Template Properties and Chart Properties forms does apply as shown below where the Font color is changed to Red and the Hover Box text is changed to Bold.

When applied to the chart with the Hover Box tool turned ON, and the mouse cursor is hovering over the Quarter 4 in the top graph data point, the Hover Box looks like this:

Using the Hover Box in the Chart Area and Graph Area

When the Hover Boxes checkbox on the OnePager View tool bar tab is check ON, the Hover Box is enabled in all modes including Presentation mode. Since the mouse cursor is also enabled in Presentation mode, this means that moving the mouse cursor over a task bar, milestone symbol, or graph data point causes OnePager to display the Hover Box in the configuration appropriate for the area where the mouse cursor is placed (i.e., graph areas or chart area).

You can use the mouse cursor in Presentation mode to display the Hover Box by moving the mouse cursor to the object you wish to discuss or emphasize in your schedule conversation. The Hover Box remains visible as long as the mouse cursor in on or near the object. The following sub-sections discuss the use of the Hover Box in the chart area and in the graph areas.

Hover Boxes for Task Bars/Milestone Symbols

For task bars/milestone symbols, the mouse cursor must be within or on the task bar or milestone symbol itself or their name labels. The default configuration for the Hover Box in the chart area is three lines: (1) Start/Finish dates, (2) Name Label, and (3) Unique ID as shown below:

You have the option to reconfigure the contents of the Hover Box to contain the imported source plan data of a single source plan field (column) by using the controls found in the Chart Properties form’s Comment Box tab’s Hover Boxes control group.

For more information on this topic, please see the article at the link provided below:

Comment Boxes Tab - Hover Box with Custom Text Feature

If there are text columns present in the chart area that contain one or more items of information contained in the Hover Box, use of the Hover Box may be redundant. However, if there are multiple task bars/milestone symbols in a row or if name labels are not displayed, the Hover Box is an excellent way to bring these information items forward to your audience in the schedule discussion. An example is shown below:

The document above has two rows with multiple task bars that overlap. Use of the Hover Box in conjunction with the Name Labels appearing in Comment Boxes is an excellent way to highlight an embedded task bar.

To avoid distraction, it is preferable to position the mouse cursor on the task bar/milestone symbol and leave it in that position until moving on to the next topic. Movement of the mouse cursor moves the positon of the Hover Box and such movement can be distracting. When moving on to the next topic involving another task bar/milestone symbol, it is suggested that the route the mouse cursor takes avoids touching non-essential task bars/milestone symbols and their name labels. This avoids distraction caused by the flashing on the screen as the mouse cursor traverses the chart area to the next topic’s task bar/milestone symbol.

If the presentation requires that the Hover Box be turned OFF, this can be done by RETURNING to the Chart Editor mode, accessing the OnePager View tool bar tab, unchecking the Hover Boxes checkbox to OFF, and returning to Presentation mode by clicking the Present button on that same OnePager View tool bar tab. When this is done, the mouse cursor behaves as a pointer and the Hover Box is not visible.

Hover Boxes for Line Graphs

When the Hover Box is enabled and the mouse cursor is positioned in a Graph area containing a graph of any type, the Hover Box displays the imported source plan field (column) value for the timespan at the data point along that graph. The Hover Box does not display a value for line graph unless the mouse cursor is positioned very near the data point for that line graph in the timespan. This is illustrated below:

Mouse Cursor on Line Graph Data Point Displaying Hover Box

Mouse Cursor NOT on Line Graph Data Point Hover Box Not Displayed

As illustrated above, using the Hover Box with a line graph requires that the mouse cursor be positioned near the data point which is usually in the middle of the timespan, shown above as Quarters, in order for the Hover Box to be visible. Moving the mouse cursor off or far away from the line graph’s data point in the timespan closes the Hover Box.

The same is true for timespans that are shorter than Quarters as shown below when the timespan is changed to Months:

When the mouse cursor is moved away from the line graph data point, the Hover Box is not shown as illustrated previously.

Hover Boxes for Area Graphs

The imported source plan field (column) selected for the Hover Box displays differently depending on the Graph Type selected for the Panel and Series. For example, the illustration below shows the Hover Box contents when the Graph Type is an Area graph:

Hover Boxes for Column Graphs

The Hover Box shown below shows the same data contents as for a line graph when the Graph Type is a Column graph. Note that the Hover Box’s contents display when the mouse cursor is anywhere in the Column graph for the timespan.

Hover Boxes for Stacked Column Graphs

When the Graph Type is a Stacked Column the Hover Box needs to be positioned to one of the bands of interest in the Stacked Column. The Hover Box displays the selected imported source plan field (column) value for that band of the Stacked Column as illustrated below:

Hover Boxes and Data Cells

When the Hover Box is enabled and the mouse cursor is positioned in a graph area containing a data cell series, the Hover Box is not displayed. The reason for this is that the Hover Box would contain information already clearly displaced in the data cell in which the mouse cursor is positioned – timespan and value.

Summary

The Hover Box is a multi-purpose tool that can be used finding values in the Chart area and in Graph areas during chart creation and editing. As described here, the Hover Box can be useful in Presentation mode to highlight specific task bars and milestone symbols as well as data points in graphs.

Getting Started (Portal)	Using Graphs & Data Cells in OnePager
OnePager's Ribbon Tool Bar Tabs	Ribbon Tool Bar - View Tab
Creating & Editing Graphs & Data Cells in OnePager	Anatomy of a OnePager Chart
Anatomy of a OnePager Graph Area	Manual Editing Task/Milestone Shapes and Text Labels (Portal)
Creating and Managing Comment Boxes	Comment Boxes Tab
Graphs & Data Cells Tab	Advanced Tab
Using Presentation Mode with OnePager	Managing Templates (Portal)