Formatting Charts in Crystal XI

[ETCS]

I have a report that shows the total number of help desk calls taken by my team. There are two groups; First a date field for the Year, and the second group a date field for the Month. The Month group displays the count of calls taken by the team.

I inserted a graph so I could do a year over year analysis of volume. The graph is broken by Year/Month. As I am showing two years worth of data, 2010 results sit on the left side of the graph and 2011 results sit on the right side.

Everything works relatively well (with the exception of the fact that the graph isn't all that attractive). However, in the center of the graph is a chuck of empty space that is nearly half the width of the entire graph. The bars on either side are squeezed together and very narrow. How can I minimize the the amount of unused space between the two data sets and give the bars a bit more width? I've gone through all of the formatting options and can't find anything that will allow me to accomplish this.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

 

[lbass]

The question is why there is the gap--Do you somehow have months that are included in the x axis that have no data (or zero values)? If it is just a matter of changing the gap, you can go into chart options and adjust the gap. What version of CR are you using.

-LB

 

[lbass]

Sorry, I see the version now in your heading...

-LB

 

[ETCS]

That's my question. All 12 months of 2010 are represented on the left side of the graph. The first 5 months of 2011 are represented in the right side. There is a blank space between the two that is about half the width of the entire graph. Looking at detail records, I don't see a gap in the data or any months that are missing for either year.

 

[lbass]

Do you mean you are seeing data for all 12 months on the left then a gap with no x axis labels and then the 5 months of 2011? Exactly how is the chart set up? Waht type of chart? What is the on change of field? What is the summary field? If you are using formulas, please show the content.

-LB

 

[ETCS]

Yes, there are 12 bars to the far left, a large gap and 5 bars to the far right. This is a bar chart. I inserted it and this is what it gave me by default. The only change I have made was to made the bars 3D.

On Change Of fieldsa are Year and Month. Summary field is Count of CallID. Show gridelines has Major and Mintor checekd for Data Axis, nothing for Group Axis. Data Values is set to Auto Range on Data Axis. Number of divisions is set to automatic.

Is there anyway I could send you a screenshot? It might make this easier to understand.

 

[lbass]

If you really want the years side by side like that, you can just use {table.date} as your on change of field->options->the seciont will be printed for each month. You can change the colors, if you wish, in Chart Options->Legend->Color by Groups.

-LB

 

[ETCS]

From what I can see, my only option in the On Change Of drop list is "@Field.Date and @Field.Date". Is this because I am using two groups in the report? One for Year and one for Month?

 

[ETCS]

Never mind. I think I've got it working now. Thanks for your input lbass! Much apprecaited!!

 

[lbass]

If you add the date field you should then be able to click on "Order" while the date field is highlighted. Then you can choose to print for each month.

-LB