Dan Waters
df.waters at outlook.com
Thu Feb 5 05:52:25 CST 2015
Hi Doug, I agree - making graphs in Access was a 'challenge'. But once done they looked great and never failed! They looked as good as a chart made in Excel, so appearance wasn't a decision factor. I did not try to create charts in Excel because sending data over to Excel from Access and then writing code to create a chart a using automation from Access is another tangle. So now I have a few charts made in Access and use those as a starting point for any new charts - saves a lot of time. So now with 'template' charts done, making charts in Access isn't difficult or time-consuming. My experience in trying to charge a company for my time is the same as yours - painful! Managers in companies don't see money the same way people do with their own money. It's just a matter of getting it into the budget - which can be painful for them. Once it's in the budget then you're all set! This is the basis for why companies want to charge subscriptions - if you agree to spend $X/mo, then it's already in your budget and you see it as less painful than buying it all at once. Dan -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Doug Steele Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 23:21 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Fancy graphs from Access Bill: do you have any experience with DashboardBuilder? Dan: my experience with graphing in Access (only in A2003, mind) was comparable to doing my own dental work with a pair of pliers and a hammer. Both of them bent and rusty :) The options - Access, Excel, outside software, that have been suggested, bring up an interesting thought. I worked for this client as a full time employee for several years until I moved away. If I had spent three days in the office logging my time as 'research', nobody would have complained. But if I now try to research their request with an invoice for 24 hours at my standard billing rate, the proverbial s*** would hit the fan. Doug On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 8:26 PM, Darryl Collins < darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au> wrote: > I tend to vote with Bill on this one. Let each bit of kit stick to > its strengths. Excel is a lousy database and Access makes a poor > charting platform. > > Why not just push the necessary data into Excel and make the charts > there? You can even link Excel into Access if you want, although this > brings with it some other issues that a stand-alone solution avoids. > > Horses for course yada yada. > > Cheers > Darryl. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto: > accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Bill Benson > Sent: Thursday, 5 February 2015 3:14 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: Re: [AccessD] Fancy graphs from Access > > curious, why should people reinvent a wheel that third party sw seems > to have reasonably covered? Does the 3rd party sw cost too much or > fail to deliver? I hate tedium. If I could avoid it for non-specific > crap like charting and dashboards I would certainly look into it, > especially for commercial stuff where someone else is willing to foot > the bill. They will pay a lot for my time to develop based on my > billing rate and learning curve. > On Feb 4, 2015 5:52 PM, "Dan Waters" <df.waters at outlook.com> wrote: > > > Hi Doug, > > > > You can make a variety of good-looking charts in Access. This looks > > like a good place to start: > > http://www.functionx.com/access/Lesson32.htm > > > > However, you may have to give up on pie charts. The reason is that > > the leader lines for each section of the pie end up on top of each > > other, and they cannot be relocated in code (every pie chart I ever > > made in Excel needed to have the leader lines manually located to be > > viewable). I guess if you turn the leaders off (if possible), then > > you can just use the legend to show which pie section is for what. > > > > I've made some interesting charts in Access. It's tedious, and you > > sometimes have to do some magic with queries, but hopefully your customer > > will like them. Expect to put some hours into developing each chart, > and > > charge accordingly. > > > > Good Luck! > > Dan > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Doug > > Steele > > Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 16:30 PM > > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > > Subject: [AccessD] Fancy graphs from Access > > > > I've just had a client ask how he can print some fancy formatted pie > > charts and graphs from an Access database. I don't have a clue - > > can anyone suggest a work flow that he can use? I can always build > > a query to get the data out to Excel or ???, but from that point > > onward I > have no experience. > > > > Thanks, > > Doug > > -- > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > -- > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com