How To Use Charts To Display Data On Access 2007 Forms

Access 2007 makes it easy to build a graph control for your form that will display calculated data–and often better than with a text form control. For example, say your employee database includes two tables: one with employee data and one with data about hours worked during 2007. The database also contains a November Hours Worked query that includes the Last Name, First Name, and Employee ID fields from the Employee Data table, and the Week Ending and Hours Worked fields for November from the 2007 Hours Worked table. You create a form based on the query that includes all of the fields. To add a chart to the form that graphs the total hours worked for each employee for the month of November, follow these steps:

1. Open the form in Design view.
2. In the Design tab under Forms Design tools, click the Insert Chart tool in the Controls group.
3. Click and drag in a blank area of the form to create the chart.
4. Click the Queries button under View and then select the November Hours Worked query and then click Next.
5. Double-click the Last Name and Hours Worked fields.
6. Click Next four times.
7. Enter Total Hours Worked In November for the chart title.
8. Click the No, Don’t Display Legend button and then click Finish.

As you click through each employee’s record, the Graph control will display a bar chart for the employee, showing the total hours they worked in November 2007.