Step 4: Formatting Options (Chart Report)


Step 4 allows you to specify how the chart appears. There are many options in this step but they are organized into groups. A complete chart editor dialog is also available to provide complete control over the chart's appearance.

The Series option at the top of Step 4 selects which series the settings apply to; this option is disabled if you did not select a series field in Step 3. This option allows you to format each series chart individually. For example, you could chart the first series as a bar chart, the second as a line chart, and the third as an area chart. If the All series option is turned on, changes in Step 4 affect all series of the chart.

As you make changes to the various options in this step, the chart displayed in this step automatically adjusts to show you what the chart looks like using your settings. However, it does not show actual data from your database until you click the Preview button.



The first option on the Chart Type page is Chart type. Select the type of chart you want from the drop-down list. The choices are Area, Bar, Column (the default chart type), Line, Pie, and Point.

Some options only apply to certain chart types. The following are available for area charts:

The following options are available for bar and column charts:

The following options are available for pie charts:

The only option for line and point charts is Point type, which specifies the shape of each point in the chart. The choices are None, Rectangles, Circles, and Triangles.



The Colors page has the following options:



The Titles page has the following options:



The Axes page has the following options:

You can specify whether a legend appears on the chart using the settings on the Legend page. If a series field is used, the legend shows the different series values. If no series field is used, the legend shows the different category values. This page has the following options:

The 3D page has the following options:

The Labels page has the following options:

The Border page has the following options:

The Background page has the following options:

The options on the last page depend on whether you are working with a chart report (in which case the page appears as "Size/Paging") or a chart included in a quick or cross-tab report (it appears as "Position"). Both types have these options:

If you are working with a chart report, other options are available:

If the chart is included in a quick or cross-tab report, Position on report appears instead of the other options. This allows you to specify whether the chart should appear at the top of the report (before the quick or cross-tab data) or at the bottom (after the data).

The chart toolbar provides additional control over the chart. It has the following functions: