QlikView Themes

A theme is stored in an external XML file with a .qvt extension. It contains separate sections for each type of object, document, sheet, and the various sheet objects. For each of these objects, the object-specific properties are stored, as well as caption and border properties and print settings. You can even store only part of the settings, for example, adding the font type of a chart's axis to a theme while ignoring its font color.

The following diagram shows the Theme File structure. Notice that there is a separate section for each type of Sheet object:

A theme is created using the Theme Maker Wizard and can contain settings for as many or few objects as you want, from a single setting for a single chart type to the entire look-and-feel of the document.

 1.   Applying themes:

As theme files store properties at various levels (document, sheet, and object), we can apply them at various levels too. As was said before, themes do not always need to be applied to the entire document.

 A theme can be applied to a single sheet, by selecting Settings | Sheet Properties and clicking on the Apply Theme button on the General tab.

 We can also apply a theme to a single object (or a group of objects, if we first select them) by opening the Object Properties window (right-click on the object, or group of objects, and select Properties...) and clicking on the Apply Theme button on the Layout tab.

 2.   Creating themes:

A theme is always created by copying the properties of documents, sheets and sheet objects which were already created.

 Theme can be created for copying document properties or sheet properties or any specific object properties. Based on what properties/settings we want to copy we will have to select the specific options from the menu->settings. Follow the sections 3a or 3b or 3c for specific theme maker wizard.

Section 3a:  Adding Document Properties 

1. Select Tools | Theme Maker Wizard from the menu.
2. Click on Next to go to the Step 1 – Select theme file dialog window.
3. Ensure that the radio button is set to New Theme and that Template is set to .
4. Click on Next, this will open a dialog window to save our theme file.
5. Browse to the folder and name the theme file as

6. In the Step 2 – Source selection dialog window, select Document from the Source drop-down list and click on Next.We have now reached the Step 3a-Object type specific properties dialog window, seen in the following screenshot. Depending on which type of object we've chosen, this dialog will show all properties that we can export to the theme file.Note there are some omissions to what can be exported to a theme, and some of the legends in the list are not entirely helpful with defining what it is you are theming.

7. Enable the checkboxes so that they look like the preceding screenshot and click on Next.

8.  Click on Finish to close the Theme Maker Wizard and save the theme. 

   We have now reached the end of the Theme Maker Wizard dialog for the document properties. Before we start on the sheet properties theme, let's first look at the final dialog window of the wizard.In the Step 5 - Save theme dialog window, seen in the following screenshot we can decide if we want to set the created theme as a default for the current document, or set it as a default for all new documents. We've skipped this option for now, but when you have created your own corporate theme, it may be worthwhile to set it as a default theme for all new documents.

 Section 3b: Adding Sheet Properties 

 Let's follow these steps to add the sheet properties to our template: 

1. Select Tools | Theme Maker Wizard from the menu and click on Next to open the Step1 – Select theme file dialog.
2. Set the radio button to Modify Existing Theme and select Browse from the drop-down list.
3. Select the .qvt file that we created earlier, and click on Next to open the Step 2 – Source selection.
4. From the Source drop-down menu, select the object Sheet Document\SH03 – Dashboard. (The SH03 part may be different in your document.)
5. Click on Next to go to Step 3a – Object type specific properties. As we can see in the following screenshot, the objects listed in this dialog window are different from those listed at the document level. Also note that, as we are modifying an existing theme, the options that are shown as selected are those that are currently already included in the theme. These were inherited from the document-level properties.
6. Enable the checkboxes for Color Map and Sheet Zoom and click on Next.
7. Click on Finish to close the wizard and add the sheet properties to the previously created .qvt theme file.

Section 3c: Adding Sheet Object Properties

Now that we have added the sheet properties to our template, we will add the properties for two sheet objects: the list box and the pie chart. First, let's add the pie chart by following these steps: 

1. Select Tools | Theme Maker Wizard from the menu and click on Next to open the Step1– Select theme file dialog.
2. Set the radio button to Modify Existing Theme and select Browse from the drop-down list.
3. Select the End User Theme.qvt file already created and click on the Next to open Step-2 – Source selection.
4. From the Source drop-down menu, select the object Chart Document\CH 
5. Enable all three checkboxes: Object Type Specific, Caption Border, and Print Settings.
6. Click on Next to go to Step 3a – Object type specific properties.
7. This dialog is the same as we saw when we were adding the document and sheet properties to the template. Leave all of the settings set to their default value and click on Next to go to Step 3b – Caption and border settings.

As the name implies, in the Caption and border settings dialog window, shown below, we can select which settings are related to borders and captions. As we will see later, we can apply these settings not only to the object we're adding to the template, but also for other objects. In practice, this means that when we create a complete document template we will only need to add these properties twice; once for objects with a caption, such as list boxes, and once for objects without a caption, such as charts. 

8. Enable the Show Caption checkbox, this will ensure that our caption settings (or more specifically, no caption settings) will be included in the template.
9. Click on Next to go to Step 3c – Printer settings.
10. Leave all of the settings to their default value and click on Next to go to Step4 – Insertion of properties in theme.In this dialog window, shown in the following screenshot, we can specify which objects we want to apply the Caption & Border and Printing settings to.

Let's follow these steps to add the Caption & Border and Printing settings to every object that needs similar styling: 

1. In the Caption & Border settings column, select the Button, Line/Arrow Object, Slider/Calendar Object, Container, Chart and Search Object checkboxes. None of these objects by default need a caption.
2. In the Printing column, select every object to apply the same print settings to each object.
3. Click on Next and then on Finish to save the theme.

 We have now added the properties for the pie chart to our template, which already contained the document and sheet properties. 

Note: Separate themes for separate objects. As you can see in the Insertion of properties in theme dialog window, the settings for all charts are stored in a single Chart type. This can create difficulties when you want to apply different settings to different charts. For example, showing a grid for line charts, but hiding it for bar charts. In that case, it is easier to create separate theme files for each of your chart objects