Locate the Chart
Item on the Blank Report
The
process of building a chart report consists of dragging the chart item onto the
Layout tab, and adjusting it, while setting properties as appropriate to
meet the report specifications. We will accomplish this in the following steps.
1.
Click the Layout
tab to switch to the Layout view.
2.
Drag the
report edges so they comfortably fill the screen area.
3.
Select View
-> Toolbox from the main menu to place the Toolbox within easy
reach (if it already appears, simply disregard this step).
The toolbox
window should appear similar to that shown in Illustration 21. Mine is
pinned to the upper left corner of the design environment, where I find it most
convenient. (I also dock my Fields and Server Explorer panes in
this area to maximize design real estate, as an aside.)
Illustration 21: The
Toolbox ...
4.
Click the Chart
button (at the bottom of the Toolbox pane).
5.
Place the
mouse cursor over the upper left corner of the report layout.
The cursor
becomes a small chart icon in combination with crosshairs when held above the
layout. This indicates that we can click to "anchor" the point, from
which we wish to draw the box that the chart will inhabit.
6.
Starting in
the upper left corner of the layout body, click, and then, holding the mouse
button down, drag to create a box that covers the report layout.
The
select / grab, anchor and size process, consisting of three primary steps, is
shown in Illustration 22 below.
Illustration 22: Grab,
Anchor, and Size the Chart Item ...
The box
should appear at the perimeter of the Layout tab.
7.
Release the
mouse to drop the chart item.
The chart item appears, in what I refer to as its
generic manifestation (the placeholder that we see prior to specifying a chart
type), as shown in Illustration 23.
Illustration 23: The
Generic Chart Item Appears
Because
the chart is the only item we intend to place in the report, it should extend
almost completely over the report layout, once it appears.
NOTE: Should you accidentally "drop" the chart item in
a manner that you wish to realign, you can simply move the item by clicking
inside the chart, then pointing to the now shaded border, to drag it to a new
location.
Clicking again on the border will also allow you to expand /
contract the chart shape. (The nuances are easy to learn with a little
practice.) Double-clicking the chart item will make the "drop regions,"
seen above, appear.
The chart item is now in place, and we are ready to specify
its "line" nature, as well as to populate it with the dataset
that we have created.
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