Setting the Show Value Fields

The Show Value list determines the fields that are plotted on the chart. On a standard vertical chart, this is where an element is plotted along the Y-axis. For example, this determines how high a bar is drawn on a bar chart. For each field listed, another element is drawn on the chart at each interval. If there is a line chart with three fields, each field would have a separate line plotting its values.

The Show Value fields are charted using either their actual value or using a summary function. This is determined by what is selected for the Evaluate option. If this option is set to For Each Record, each record gets charted according to its actual value. Thus, no summary calculation is performed. If the option selected is On Change Of or For All Records, a summary calculation is performed to determine what value to plot. The On Change Of setting calculates a summary value for each group. The For All Records setting plots a single summary value for the entire report. This has the effect of plotting one element for each field listed.

The default summary calculation is the Sum() function. If you had selected a text field for the Show Value field, the summary function would be Count(). You can change this by selecting the field and clicking on the Set Summary Operation button. This brings up the standard Change Summary dialog box where you click on the dropdown box to select a different summary function.