There is a rumor that charts are not supported in MS Access, and that you have to export your data to Excel! I don’t know why this rumor exists, but it isn’t true! Here is how you can create a chart using a graph type of your choice in Access without the help of any other application. Just Access!

Note that Access may display the fields of your chart using long descriptions, such as “Sum of International Sales”. If you don’t want that, you need to change the field names of your chart’s datasheet by double (or right) clicking on your chart in design view.

This is not enough however; you need also to change these descriptions in the “Property Sheet” > “Data” of your chart (entering first the design view of your chart). For example in the query

SELECT (Format([Date],"DDDDD")),Sum([Files]) AS [SumOfFiles],Sum([Images]) AS [SumOfImages]

just remove the “SumOf” part.

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Go to “Create” > “Blank Report” and switch to “Design View”. From the top menu click the “Design” option. From the icons right below, select and click the “Chart” icon.

Click in the Design area of your report and drag your mouse to define the width and height of your chart. A dialogue opens to let you select the fields you need to include in your chart.

After you select also the type of chart you’d like to create, arrange your fields according to the type of your chart. After that you can create also a legend.
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Check also these lists with the best free MS Word productivity macros, with the best free measurement unit converters, and with the best free Windows calculators.

Enjoy!