Grouping and Summarizing with the Chart Expert

The Advanced layout allows you to create a chart based on specific values. Since charts are a good way to display summarized information, they are often based on a summary field in your report. With an Advanced layout, you can create a chart without the need for a summary field by using values that appear in the Details section of your report.

To create a chart based on the Advanced layout, you must specify two things:

• Conditions: You can use two conditions.

• Values: You can use multiple values.

The condition is used to indicate when to plot the point. For example, a chart showing last year's sales for your customers uses the Customer Name field as the condition. Each time the condition changes (in this example, the customer name changes), a point is plotted.

You also have the option of plotting a point for each record, or plotting one point for all records.

The Advanced chart uses the value to indicate what information is plotted as the points on your chart. For example, to create a chart showing last year's sales for your customers, the Last Year's Sales field would be the value.

• The Advanced layout in charting enables creating charts directly from specific values without requiring a summary field.
• To create an Advanced layout chart, you need to define two conditions and multiple values.
• These charts can plot points either on a per-record basis or for grouped records, using specified conditions and values to determine when and what information to plot.