X Axis Tab
The X
Axis tab is disabled for a Pie chart data region. All settings are therefore
grayed out.
Y Axis Tab
The Y
Axis tab, like the X Axis tab, is disabled for a Pie chart data region. All
settings are, again, therefore grayed out.
We will
move to the Legend tab next.
Legend Tab
We advise
our client colleagues that, since the default position for the legend is to the
right of the chart area, and since our exploded pie chart may be wider than
expected, due to its nature and the amount of data we are presenting, placing
the legend underneath the chart will offer another means of more efficiently
arranging the overall presentation.
2.
Ensure that
the Show legend checkbox is checked, in the upper left corner of the tab.
3.
Ensure that
the Column radio button is selected, on the left side of the Layout section of
the tab.
4.
Click the
bottom middle button underneath the Position selection diagram, to center the Legend
box underneath the Column chart area.
5.
Click the Legend
Style button that appears immediately beneath the checkbox labeled Display
legend inside plot area (ensure that the box remains unchecked).
The Style
Properties dialog box appears, defaulted to the Font tab.
6.
Make the
settings, listed in Table 3 below, within the Font tab of the Style Properties
dialog box:
Property
|
|
Setting
|
|
|
|
Family
|
|
Arial
|
Size
|
|
9pt
|
Style
|
|
Normal
|
Weight
|
|
Normal
|
Color
|
|
Black
|
Decoration
|
|
None
|
|
|
|
Table 3: Style Properties Dialog Font Tab
The Font tab
of the Style Properties dialog appears, with our settings, as shown in Illustration
29.
Illustration 29: Font Tab of the Style Properties Dialog Box, with Settings
We note
the presence of the Border and Line and Fill tabs, but we will leave the
settings within each at default, at this point.
7.
Click OK to
accept changes, and to exit the Style Properties dialog box.
We return
to the Legend tab, once again, where we will leave all else at default. The Legend
tab appears, with our settings, as depicted in Illustration 30.
Illustration 30: Chart Properties Dialog Box Legend Tab with Our Settings
We will
move to the 3D Effect tab in the next subsection.
3D Effect Tab
1.
Click the 3D
Effect tab.
We inform our client colleagues that the 3D Effect tab
offers us a means of transforming the ordinarily flat appearance of our Exploded
Pie chart to a highly customizable, three dimensional presentation. Here we
can enable 3-D visual effects (via the checkbox to the immediate left of the Display
chart with 3-D visual effect label). The four variables that we can manipulate
are:
-
Horizontal
rotation
-
Perspective
-
Wall thickness
-
Vertical
rotation
Once 3-D visual effects are enabled, a slider becomes
enabled for each of these variables, which we can move to adjust each variable
until we achieve just the degree of readability we desire within the chart.
We will
leave the settings of the 3D Effect tab at default at this point. The 3D Effect
tab appears, with default settings, as shown in Illustration 31.
Illustration 31: Chart Properties Dialog Box 3D Effect Tab with Our Settings
We will examine
the final remaining tab, Filters, in the next subsection.
Filters Tab
1.
Click the Filters
tab.
The Filters tab is but one option we have, within Reporting
Services, to filter the data that are displayed within our chart. We advise
our client colleagues that we performed all desired filtering at the dataset
level earlier within our practice session. When this is adequate (that is,
when we can effectively filter at the dataset level for the entire report), we
may achieve performance gains at report runtime, due to the overall retrieval
of less data from the Analysis Services data source. But, we caution the
client representatives, due consideration should be given to the various points
at which we can filter within a given report, to ascertain that we optimize
performance while retaining complete and accurate information for presentation.
The Filters tab allows us to choose either dataset columns
or expressions to filter data at the chart level. This might make sense as a
filter point if we were, say, using multiple data regions (charts, matrices,
tables, lists, or a combination of these, perhaps) that were sharing the same
common dataset(s), but where each region had different filtering requirements
and needed to present different subsets of data from the underlying dataset(s).
Whatever our needs, Reporting Services, once again, offers flexibility in ways
to meet the challenges involved.
The Filters
tab appears, with default settings, as depicted in Illustration 32.
Illustration 32: Chart Properties Dialog Box Filters Tab with Default Settings
2.
Click OK to
accept all the settings we have made in the multi-tabbed Chart Properties
dialog box.
The Chart Properties dialog closes,
returning us to the placeholder chart item in Report Designer, Layout tab. We
will conclude our practice session in the next section, where we will verify
the operation of our new exploded Pie chart.