MS Access for the Business Environment: Create a PivotChart View in Access - Page 6

Create a PivotChart View

Microsoft Access 2002 provides a robust new technique, the PivotChart view, for online analysis. In addition, PivotCharts provide an excellent option for including charts in our forms and reports: We can embed a form that is open in PivotChart view as a subform in another form or report. Numerous advantages exist in using PivotChart views over chart controls.

As we discussed in the introduction, numerous differences exist between PivotTable and PivotChart views. Let's review the steps together for converting our existing PivotTable view to a PivotChart view, beginning where we left off with the PivotTable view in the last section.

1. Select View -> PivotChart View from the main menu.

The PivotChart view appears in its raw form, as shown in Illustration 17.

We will remove some of the extraneous fields to demonstrate the potential of refined views in using the PivotChart. Keep in mind that any field we remove from the PivotChart remains available for selection in the same chart; while the removed item no longer appears in the chart, all that is required to resurrect the field is to call upon the Field List, which resembles the Field List we have used in the PivotTable view above and in our previous lesson.

2. Select Company Name at the right of the PivotChart (called the Series area).
3. Press the DELETE key.
4. Select Order Date at the bottom of the chart (called the Categories area).
5. Press the DELETE key.

We note that, although we have deleted the Company Name and Order Date fields, from the Series and Categories areas respectively, Company Name and Order Date continue to appear in the Field List as a selection option.

6. Click-select the Order Date by Month field in the Field List, as depicted in Illustration 18.

7. Drag the Order Date by Month field to the Category fields area (where a box labeled "Drop Category Fields Here" is currently displayed), and drop within the boxed area.

The PivotChart assumes the attributes depicted in Illustration 19.

8. Click the Years label (down arrow) that has appeared in the Category area of the chart.
9. Uncheck Year 1996 to remove it from the chart.
10. Expand Year 1997 by clicking the "+" sign to its immediate left.
11. Deselect Quarters 3 & 4 in 1997.

From an accounting perspective, this makes the two years comparable, as Year 1998 only has two quarters recorded.

12. Click OK.

The PivotChart appears as shown in Illustration 20.

The PivotChart offers options for manipulating the data and enhancing the appearance of the graph, changing the chart type, modifying the axis lines and labels, and assorted other standard chart attributes. We will further explore these in the next section, where we will organize and format the view we have created.