The purpose of animated transitions with Chart Tools is to maintain a smooth transition between two different but very similar sets of data. For animations, two data sets must be supplied in order to make the before/after transition. The animation of the transition is triggered by an event, which is most often a user button-click. Animated transitions are a type of event control and are discussed further in Chapter 7, Dashboards, Controls, and Events.

Although the topic of dashboards and controls has an entire chapter dedicated to its many applications, the concept of using a control mechanism to view data can be categorized as dynamic/interactive formatting. A dashboard is simply one or more real-time filter control(s) made available to the end user. In Chapter 7, Dashboards, Controls, and Events, the various aspects of end-user chart manipulation are covered in depth.

It is possible to evoke the same Chart Editor used in Spreadsheets and Fusion Tables in an API-driven visualization. Unfortunately, the Chart Editor option only allows the Chart Wrapper (wrapper.draw()) method to be used to render the chart. If specific customization only available through chart.draw() is required, the Chart Wrapper limitations may become an issue. This topic is covered in additional detail in Chapter 7, Dashboards, Controls, and Events.