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Subject: Re: Charts		View Full Headers List Thread in New Window List Thread in Group Window List Thread in Article Window
From: <mpalotay@deja.com>
Date: 21 Feb 2001 20:45:07 GMT
Message-ID: <9719cj$f0t$1@news.netmar.com>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ms-access

(Slightly) facetious suggestion: export the query results to Excel and do
your chart from there. IMNSHO, Microsoft Graph is nothing more than a form of
cruel and unusual punishment, and as such is unconstitutional.

If you really need to do the charting in Access, be prepared for a lot of hair
pulling and yelling at the screen, because what you see is most definitely
not what you get. But then you already knew that, didn't you?

Theoretically, what you need to do is make a query that groups and sums your
data the way you want it to appear in the chart. You then base the chart on
this query. Unfortunately, it's never that easy...

You didn't give enough information about what exactly you want to show in the
chart. Is there some value you want to summarize and show by promise_date? Or
do you want some sort of line graph of projectID vs. promise_date? The latter
doesn't make much sense from a charting point of view--you group information
by dates, but you never actually chart dates. (Random idea: You could
calculate the difference between promise_date and today's date (or the
delivery date or some other date) and chart that number...)

The key things to remember are:
1. The query needs to show the data exactly as you want it to appear in the
chart. The chart cannot do any further sorting or summarizing. (Ok, ok.
Technically & theoretically, the chart can group dates; but in my experience,
it tends to just mess things up.)
2. The query needs to show ONLY the data you want to show. The chart can't
filter the data.
3. The data in the query needs to be arranged in a way that the chart
understands. If you want more than one series (grouped column chart, for
example), you pretty much have to use a Crosstab query. (The arrangement of
the data has to be the same as for the Excel Chart Wizard, if that helps
any.)
4. Try not to fiddle with the sample data in Microsoft Graph. You'll just end
up with a chart that looks great in design view, but horrible when
printed/previewed.
5. If your chart needs any sort of customization, or if you need to update it
frequently (especially if updates often make design changes necessary), then
you'd be better off exporting to Excel.

Does any of this rambling nonsense help?

Martha

In article <97161q$85s$1@news.netmar.com>,
<larryh@appliedimage.com> writes:
>I actually fancy myself rather advanced in Access, but I am having serious
>troubles making a report with charts on it.
>
>I know that in form/report design view, you select "Insert...Chart," and
>then answer the questions. I am also pretty knowledgeable about looking up
the
>properties of any object by right-clicking it and selecting "Properties,"
>then selecting the page tab with the controls you wish to change.
>
>That said, I totally can't get my chart to even come close to what I want,
>which is very simple. I have a table with PROJECTS on it, and the fields I
>want for the chart portion are dates. One of the dates is "promise_date."
>
>How would I make the chart show a chart of each project and its promise
date?
>
>Larry R Harrison Jr

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