Creating Charts Based on Existing Groups and Summaries

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to visualize data using groups and summaries.

Drill-Down with Charts

Drill-down is a process where the details behind summary information can be revealed by clicking the summary information contained in a report.

A chart that is based upon summary fields is a candidate for drill-down. For each level of grouping and summarizing that make up the chart, you can drill down into the data to see the underlying information that constitutes those totals.

A 3D bar chart titled Customer Sales (noting 13 Customers) compares last year's sales by country, showing a smaller blue 3D bar for Australia at roughly 40K and a much larger orange 3D bar for New Zealand reaching about 120K along the horizontal Last Year's Sales axis, with a legend identifying the colors and a prominent yellow-bordered overlay reading Double-click on data in chart across the New Zealand bar that visually emphasizes the sales disparity.

If a chart consists of one or more group fields and you have included a legend, you can drill down on individual groups through the chart legend. Double-click the cursor on the markers and text in the legend to view the details about that section of the chart.

For example, on a report showing total sales for each region with a pie chart based on those subtotals, double-clicking a pie slice opens a drill-down tab showing the individual entries that make up that subtotal.

Viewing a Chart in the Preview Window

When viewing a chart in the Preview window, the cursor changes to a magnifying glass. When you double-click with this magnifying glass, a new Preview tab opens up and the details behind that summary are displayed.

You can double-click as many summaries as you want as each one opens its own drill-down tab.

Note

You cannot drill down on an advanced chart because the chart is already displaying all the data for that field.

Screenshot of a New Zealand sales report window with a left navigation panel and a central title New Zealand above a ranked list of six customer IDs and dollar sales (Mountain View Sport $65,232; Sports Fever $43,322; Beach Trails and Wheels $2,944; Bill's Bikes $2,459; New Trails $1,716; Forested Hills $1,067) and a grand total of $116,740, accompanied by a 3D pie chart titled Sales by Customer — For New Zealand that visually emphasizes Mountain View Sport (55.9%, large blue slice) and Sports Fever (37.1%, large orange slice) while the other four customers occupy small slivers (2.5%–0.9%).

Hint

Closing the drill-down tabs does not close the report. However, closing the Preview tab closes all drill-down tabs. If you made any changes since the last save and you close the report, you will be prompted to save those changes.

Create a Chart from Existing Groups

In this exercise, you will create a chart from existing groups.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Summary

Drill-down functionality enables users to access detailed data underlying summary information in charts by clicking on chart sections or legend items.
Double-clicking summaries in the Preview window opens new tabs with detailed information.
Closing the Preview tab closes all associated drill-down tabs, but individual drill-down tabs can be closed without affecting the report.

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