Help

Creating charts from data
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 400
Chart planning guidelines
• Creating a quick chart doesn’t require much planning. FileMaker Pro sets up the chart for
you based on the current state of the file. You can adjust settings, if needed, to make your
comparison clear. You can print a quick chart, save it on a new layout (if you have the
correct privileges), or you can copy and paste a quick chart into another application. See
Creating quick charts.
• Identify the audience for the chart and decide what you want the chart to emphasize. For
example, a chart for a marketing presentation might show how a product line has grown in
the months after an advertising campaign was launched. Think about the data in your
database and how it might be compared or contrasted graphically to make your point.
• Choose the best type of chart to convey your comparison. Some chart formats compare
similar data from different sources, some show trends over time, and some show
percentages of a total. See
About chart types.
• Consider sketching the chart on paper to help you determine the data series you need to
assign to the x-axis and y-axis (category labels and slice data in pie charts). Charts typically
show category labels on the x-axis (values you are comparing, such as companies by
name) and values on the y-axis (values you are measuring, such as quarterly sales figures
for each company).
• Decide whether you need to modify data to show your comparison.
• Do you need to perform any calculations on the data before you create the chart? For
example, do you need to add
summary fields to the database to calculate quarterly
sales figures or does your database already contain quarterly information?
• Do you need to sort data to show your comparison?
Creating quick charts
You can create and print a quick chart in Browse mode. When you start in Browse mode,
FileMaker
Pro sets up the chart based on the:
• field type and contents of the active field
To Consider this
Chart summary data If you’re creating a chart in Layout mode, make sure data is
grouped and sorted correctly and that you place your chart in the
appropriate layout part. See
Placing your chart in the appropriate
layout part.
Chart data in related records You can sort data based on related fields, but you must set the sort
order in the Chart Setup dialog box, not the Sort dialog box. See
Specifying the data source for a chart.
Chart multiple data values
located in single fields (for
example, data in repeating
fields or delimited data in a
single field)
To chart delimited data, your database must contain multiple data
values in single fields. You can use a calculation or a function
(such as the List function) to do this. You then specify one
delimited data field for the x-axis (category labels in pie charts) and
one data field for the y-axis (slice data in pie charts). When you
chart delimited data, values from the x-axis field correspond to
values in the y-axis field in the order they were entered. See
Example: Charting delimited data.
Note FileMaker Pro recognizes only the carriage-return character
as the data delimiter.