# Customizing visuals in a free-form layout


You can use the free-form layout to fully customize the color, size, location, and visibility of each visual in a dashboard.

## Organizing visuals


Besides dragging a visual to its preferred location within a dashboard, there are many different ways to move a visual to the exact location it needs to be.

**To enter the coordinates of the visual's location**

1. Choose the visual that you want.

1. On the menu in the upper-right corner of the visual, select the **Format visual** icon.

1. In the **Properties** pane that opens, choose **Placement**. 

1. Enter the **X** and **Y** coordinates of the location you want to place your visual. You can also adjust the size of the visual by entering **Width** and **Height** values. 

Selected visuals can also be moved pixel-by-pixel using your keyboard's arrow keys.

You can overlay visuals on top of one another to create multi-layered visuals that show data.

Visuals can be organized into multiple layers that can be manually moved to the front and back.

**To move overlaid visuals to the front and back**

1. Choose the visual that you want.

1. On the three-dot menu in the upper-right hand side of the visual, choose **Menu options**.

1. For **Menu options**, choose from the following:
   + **Send to back** sends the visual to the back.
   + **Send backward** sends the visual one layer back.
   + **Bring forward** rings the visual one layer forward.
   + **Bring to front** brings a visual to the front.

## Changing a visual's background color


The colors of a visual’s background, border, and selection frame can be customized in the **Display settings** pane of the **Properties** pane.

**To change the color of a visual's background, border, or selection frame**

1. Choose the visual that you want to change.

1. On the menu in the upper-right hand side of the visual, choose the **Properties** icon.

1. In the **Properties** pane that appears on the left, choose **Display settings**.

1. Navigate to the **Card style** section and perform one or more of the available actions:
   + To change the color of a visual's background, choose the **Background** color box, and then choose the color that you want.
   + To change the color of a visual's border, choose the **Border** color box, and then choose the color that you want.
   + To change the color of a visual's selection frame, choose the **Selection** color box, and then choose the color that you want.

   If you want to use a custom color for your visual's background, border, or selection frame, choose the color box of the property that you want to change, and then choose **Custom color**. In the **Custom color** window that appears, choose your custom color or enter the color's hexadecimal code. When you are finished, choose **Apply**.

You can also reset a visual's customized background back to its default appearance.

**To reset the appearance of a visual**

1. Choose the visual that you want to change.

1. On the menu in the upper-right hand side of the visual, choose the **Properties** icon.

1. In the **Properties** pane that appears on the left, choose **Display settings**.

1. Choose the color that you want to reset, and then choose **Reset to default**.

## Hiding visual backgrounds, borders, and selection colors


You can also choose not to show the background border, or selection color of a visual. This is useful for when you want to overlap multiple visuals. You can hide a visual’s background, border, and selection colors by choosing the eye icon next to the **Border**, **Background**, or **Selection** color boxes. You can also remove a visual’s loading animation by clearing the **Show loading animation** box. 

## Disabling visual menus


Use the **Interactions** panel of the **Properties** pane to hide the **Context** menu and **On-visual** menu from selected visuals. You can hide secondary visual menus to make the visual less crowded or to make a visual act like an overlay. 

The **Context** menu opens on data-point clicks. Common actions in the **Context menu** include **Focus**, **Exclude**, and **Drill-down**.

The **On-visual** menu appears on the top-right side of a visual. The **On-visual **menu is used to access the **Proeprties** pane, **Maximize** the visual, access the **Menu options** panel, and review an **Anomaly insight**.

You can turn off the secondary visual menus by clearing the **Context menu** and **On-visual menu** options.

**Note**  
You can't preview changes to the **Interactions** panel in **Analyses**. Publish the dashboard to view your changes.