MS Access for the Business Environment: Create a PivotChart View in Access - Page 8

Now let's perform a few formatting and organization steps.

4. Right-click the Axis Title label at the bottom of the chart.
5. Select Properties from the context menu that appears.

The Properties dialog appears, defaulted to the General tab, as shown in Illustration 25.

6. Click the Format tab.
7. Type Q1 / Q2 Results into the Caption box at bottom.
8. Click the Bold button atop the dialog.

The Format tab - Properties dialog appears as depicted in Illustration 26.

9. Leaving the Properties dialog open, click the Axis Title label at the left of the chart.
10. Type Total Net Sale into the Caption box at the bottom of the Format tab.
11. Click the Bold button atop the dialog.

The Format tab - Properties dialog appears as depicted in Illustration 27.

12. Close the Properties dialog.
13. Right-click the PivotChart in any blank area.
14. Select Properties from the context menu that appears.

The Properties dialog appears, defaulted to the General tab.

15. Click the Add Legend button, shown circled in Illustration 28.

16. Close the Chart Properties dialog.

Our PivotChart appears, after our enhancements, as shown in Illustration 29.

17. Right-click the Plot area (the gray area that contains the data columns - also known as "markers" - in our PivotChart).
18. Select Properties from the context menu that appears.
19. Select the Border / Fill tab, as necessary.
20. In the Fill Color section of the tab, click the Color button to reveal the color selection palette.
21. Select the Lavender swatch from the palette, as shown circled in Illustration 30.

22. Close the Properties dialog.

To conclude our exploration of the PivotChart, let's practice changing the view of the data.

23. Resurrect the Field List once again.
24. Select Product Name by clicking it.
25. Select Series Area in the text box to the right of the Add To button.
26. Click Add to.
27. Close the Field List.
28. Click the City selector button (just above the Legend we created earlier, on the right side of the chart).

The City selection drops down.

29. Deselect All by clicking the checkbox to its left.

All cities become deselected.

30. Select Boise as the sole city for analysis by placing a check in the box to its left.
31. Click OK.

The selector dropdown closes.

32. Right-click the Category Axis Title (Q1 / Q2 Results) box.
33. Select Properties.

The Properties dialog appears.

34. On the Format tab, modify the Caption to read: Q1 / Q2 Results by Location and Product.
35. Close the Properties dialog.

The PivotChart appears, with our modifications, as depicted in Illustration 31.

There are numerous other options and views we might select within our PivotChart to customize it for the myriad analysis requirements that we might encounter. The addition of the PivotChart to Access 2002 provides a great analysis and presentation tool to business analysts and other information consumers everywhere.

Conclusion ...

With this lesson we introduced the PivotChart in MS Access 2002, basing it upon a PivotTable view we created for that purpose. After a brief introduction to PivotChart views, and a comparison to the PivotTable views we explored in the previous lesson, we began to explore some of the ways that we can use the PivotChart for interactive data analysis. In preparing to show the various steps in using the PivotChart, we first created a query, which in turn supported a PivotTable, both as a review of the steps we took in the previous lesson and as a means of creating the basis for the PivotChart. Once we created the PivotChart, we explored ways to organize the new PivotChart view to make it easy to use. We then took steps to format and organize our view, and walked through the process of changing the chart type, examining various formatting procedures as we proceeded.

» See All Articles by Columnist William E. Pearson, III