Working with the Time Wheel

The Time Wheel function in Analyst's Notebook is a highly visual way to analyze the time-based data on your chart.

The Time Wheel visualizes the relationship between the date and time properties of chart items, in a circular diagram made up of sectors and rings. This is useful because you can quickly identify when events occurred and with what regularity. For example, you are interested in the number of calls made between certain telephone numbers, and when those calls were made. Individual values in the matrix are represented by colors from a predefined palette, which you can customize. The sectors are shaded to show the amount of activity in the time period selected. When you hover your cursor over a sector, say between 17:00 and 18:00 on Saturday, Analyst's Notebook displays a summary of all the calls made during that hour. When you click that sector, the relevant records are highlighted on the chart.

By default the lowest value is displayed in the lightest color, through to the highest value, which is displayed in the darkest color. You can choose to change the palette of colors, and which values are represented by light or dark shades. You can also select a linear, logarithmic, or sequential range to change the color scale. The linear range shows an even color distribution, the logarithmic scale emphasizes higher counts and the sequential range distributes color evenly across counts that contain data. For more information about ranges, see Heat matrix options.

To use the Time Wheel:
  1. Click the Analyze tab, and then in the Gain Insight group, click Time Wheel. The Time Wheel window opens.
    Option Description
    Property Shows available date and time properties.
    Sector Shows a list of scales for use in comparison to Rings.
    Rings Shows a list of scales for use in comparison to Sectors.
    Timezones Selects either the chart time zone or item time zone.
    Scale Color Shows the colors available to select, gives the option to display the color scale in reverse, and changes the range options between linear, logarithmic and sequential.
    Copy Copies the Time Wheel to the clipboard.
  2. Click Properties and select the chart item properties that you want to investigate.
  3. Click Sectors and set the time period for sectors, for example Hour of Day.
  4. Click Rings and set the time period for rings, for example Day of Week. You should select different settings for sectors and rings.
  5. Click Timezones to change from item time zone to chart time zone.
    The Time Wheel time zone setting defaults to item time zones, that is the time zone set in the item's properties. If you change the setting to use the chart's time zone, values are normalized to that time. For example, if your chart is set to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the item time zone is set to Eastern Standard Time (EST), the date and time in the Time Wheel is adjusted to +5 hours in line with GMT.
  6. Click Scale Color to see the available color options and ranges. Customize the colors used in the Time Wheel to suit your needs.
The Time Wheel displays your data as selected. Hover over a sector to see a summary of the activity and click to highlight the activity on the chart. You can use Ctrl+Click to select multiple cells.