Stacked Bar Chart?

[Markwell]

I've got a query with about 30 records, and 4 paid amounts in categories. I'm looking to create a stacked bar graph to show the total amount broken down by the various categories for each record.

I found how to create charts in Access using the chart wizard, but the Stacked Bar Chart is not one of the selections in the basic types for the wizard.

When I got the regular bar chart, I found that I could edit it to be a stacked bar graph. The problem is that it now is only graphic the first series of data that the wizard pulled from the single series bar graph.

I must be missing something! How do I get a stacked bar graph in Access?

 

[GingerR]

making charts in Access is a bit cumbersome and confusing until you get the hang of it. In your case, the wizard, in trying to help you out, just honked you up instead. try these steps:

1) In the design view of the report, click once on the chart and view the properties (if they are not already visible). In the ROW SOURCE property, click on the BUILD BUTTON (the little button with the three dots ...)

2)make the query/table look like how you want it. chances are the 'wizard' grouped up things in wierd/unnecessary ways, etc. in your case you should have four columns of data to the right of the first column which contains the x-axis values (dates, or categories, or whatever).

3) run the query (the red exclamation mark)

4)use keyboard ctrl+a (select all) then ctrl+c (copy). this copies all the data. close the query window.

5) double-click the chart. in the datasheet (if it's not visible go VIEW+DATASHEET), paste in the data by hitting ctrl+a (select all) again, then ctrl+v (paste). if there's an error message about how it doesn't fit, just hit OK or YES or whatever it says. this pastes in YOUR data to use as a 'template' instead of the crazy "north-south-east-west" data that Access uses. Now you can see your own data and how it will look, then go from there to format your chart. As usual, your data will change as the data in the underlying tables/query changes, so don't worry about that. This just gives you a look at how your own data will look in the report.

6) Formatting your chart-similar to Excel. menu item CHART OPTIONS changes the type of chart, the axis labels, etc; double-clicking on objects (gridlines, the chart chunks themselves) is how you change the colors, etc.

These are the same steps you should always use. Usually I just use the wizard to get a chart on the page, then tweak as above. Or I copy an existing chart and tweak it.

hope this helps--g