The charts configuration process can be conventionally divided into three stages:

• Selecting the chart type  (pie, horizontal or vertical bar);
• Selecting the data source for the chart. Record fields serve as the source of charts data;
• Customizing the chart layout (selecting colors, fonts, etc.).

Creating a New Chart

To add a chart to the report, click the corresponding button on the toolbar:

The Wizard window will appear on the screen offering you to select the type of the chart. The following types are available in version 4.0:

• vertical bar;
• horizontal bar;
• pie.

When you select it, click the Next button to proceed to selecting a data source for your chart.

Selecting a Data Source for a Chart

Specifying a data source for a chart means selecting record fields based on which the chart will be built.

To build a chart, you should specify at least two fields - for the argument of the chart (x) and for the values of the chart (y). Suppose we have a database of orders that contains the following fields:

• Client Name
• Country
• Total
• Delivery Cost
• Product

If we specify the Country field as the argument and the Total field as the value, we will have a chart showing the total amount of product orders for each country. In other words, in the process of building the chart, the record fields that have one and the same argument are summed up (in this case the Total fields are summed up by the Countries fields).

The source of values can be the number of records for this argument. For example, if the argument is Client Name, and the value is Number of Records, we will have a chart showing how many orders each client made.

All chart types, except pies, can have from one to four values. For example, in the following picture Product is specified as the argument, while Total and Delivery Cost are the values:

In case with pies, the only source of values defines the size of each sector (in the picture: argument=Product, value=Total):

• Note 1. In the data input window you can specify the field by which the data will be sorted.
• Note 2. The source of values can be only those fields that contain numbers or it can be the Number of Records value.

Customizing Chart Layout

The layout customization window contains several tabs with options and the preview window:

General

Contains the general chart settings. On this tab you should pay special attention to the Limit number of values to option that defines how many values will be displayed. The rest of values will be summed up and displayed as one value with the name specified in the Name all other values as field.

3D

Allows you to customize the three-dimensional view of the chart.

Data Labels

Use this tab to enable/disable labels for chart elements and to customize their appearance.

Axis X, Axis Y

This tab contains the properties of axes. Axis X is the argument axis, Axis Y is the value axis. Depending on the chart type, these settings may vary or be unavailable.

Legend

Use this tab to enable/disable the legend and customize its appearance.

Series

The number of series is defined by the number of specified value sources.

For example, in the following picture there are two value sources specified: Total and Delivery Cost.

You can specify both the name and the color for series on the Series tab.

In case with pies, this tab is changed to the Pie Sectors tab where you can specify the color for each sector.

CS Format

You can use this tab to specify the format of numbers in Custom Strings, for ValY, ValYPerc and ValX (see below).

CS - Custom Strings

Using Custom Strings, you can customize the format for displaying the legend, data labels and column headers. Along with usual text, you can use special characters in Custom Strings. Later they will be dynamically changed to the corresponding values.

For data:

• DataName - is changed to the content of the argument field (in the picture above - CRT Monitor and LCD Monitor).
• ValY - is changed to the value of the corresponding argument.
• ValYPerc - is changed to display the percentage of the values. For example, if there are three pieces of data with values 2, 5 and 3, ValYPerc will take the following values: 20%, 50% and 30%.
• ValYPercS - is changed to display the percentage of the value from the maximal one. For example, if there are three pieces, the data with values 2, 5 and 3, ValYPercS will take the following values: 40%, 100% and 60%. It means that each value 2 is 40% from 5, and 3 is 60% from 5.

Examples:

DataName, ValYPerc is changed to CTR Monitor, 44% and LCD Monitor, 56%.

DataName - Total=ValY$ is changed to CTR Monitor - Total=450$ and LCD Monitor - Total=580$.

For series:

• SerName - is changed to the name of the series.

For example, in the following picture CS for the legend consists only of SerName, while CS for labels on the horizontal axis consists of only DataName: