All, Hope I can phrase this question clearly...
I'm working on an application that will display a visual timeline with a vertical orientation. At various points along the timeline, it will display key markers/milestones. Each one of these markers will have a label. The problem arises when several milestones are bunched together. If I draw the label for each marker at the exact y coordinate that corresponds with that particular point in time, the labels will overlap, and are unreadable. One obvious solution is to stack the labels horizontally, but because of the particular layout of this application, that's not possible. So, what I need is an algorithm that will nudge the Y coordinate of various labels just enough to get everything to fit. Then, I'll draw a hairline from the label to the exact Y coordinate on the timeline that it's associated with. I could start with the top label, and then step through each label below, moving them each down enough to remove overlaps. But that could result in a lot more moving than necessary, and won't use space optimally. A better solution would be one that moves some up, some down, to minimize the total distance. Here's an exact example of what I'm trying to accomplish: http://www.smartmoney.com/fundanalyzer/ Is anyone aware of an algorithm that does something like this? Many thanks in advance for any insights or advice! Cheers, Matt _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list [email protected] http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
