Adding Visualizations to a Report

About This Guide

This guide is designed to walk users through adding a visualization to the example report. For this example, we'll create a chart visualization, keeping in mind that GeoCharts, Google Maps and gauges are other possible visualization types.

More info on GeoCharts, Google Maps, and gauges can be found in their respective articles.

 

Adding a Chart

To add a chart, first select a cell in in the Report Footer and press the Chart Button () in the toolbar above the Design Grid. 

 

Or, right-click a cell in the Report Footer, hover over 'Insert' in the drop-down menu, and select 'Chart' from the second drop-down menu.

 

NOTE. Charts rely on aggregating data and are therefore best placed in a group or report footer.

 

The Chart Wizard

Appearance Tab

 

The Chart Wizard opens on the Type tab, where users may select the type of chart they wish to create. The charts are broken up into four groups: Line; Bar and Column; Pie and Other Single-Series; and Scatter and Bubble charts.

For this report, the desire is to show a chart that allows direct visual comparison of total revenue generated by each product. This is best accomplished with a bar or column chart.

 

Data Tab

The Data Tab is where data is refined for the selected chart and where the interaction of the data is determined. A data value and a data label for the chart must be set before proceeding.

For this chart, set the X-Axis Labels to Products.ProductName, and set the Series Values to the formula for product revenue, =[B5]*[C5], using the dropdown menus. Under Other Options, we will set the data values to sort in ascending order for quick comparison.

 

NOTE. Data Values must be numeric values.

 

Appearance Tab

In this tab, we can customize the chart's appearance by applying a theme, labels, number formatting, benchmark lines, and other features. 

 

NOTE. The values set in the Appearance Tab are optional.

 

Size and Preview Tab

After the chart has been formatted, we can either press the Finish button to dismiss the chart wizard or move on to the Size and Preview Tab. The preview displays dummy data formatted according to the user's specifications and gives users the option to resize the chart.

 

Reading The Chart

Click Finish and execute the report to HTML. Below is the visualization we've just constructed:

 

 

After execution, it is clear that Tarte au Sucre has generated the most revenue and that Chocolade has generated the least.

 

Interactive HTML

In the HTML viewer, users are able to make adjustments to the chart without having to re-execute the report. Right clicking on the chart will bring up a series of menus.

 

These menus include:

Now that the report is near complete, it is possible that users may need to schedule this report for use. For information on this process, continue to Scheduling a Report.