Charts in Excel/Access

  • Thread starter Thread starter P Fu
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P Fu

Hi,

I am aware that Access has some charting abilities that are similar to
Excel. Are they just as powerful? My initial guess is that it is not.
My question is, is it better to keep generating the charts in Access
or to export the data into Excel and create the charts there for
reports? Better as in more efficient, effective, stable, etc. I need
to provide a recommendation to my supervisor asap and I am still
trying to research all the pros and cons of each possibility. Would
anyone be able to help me? I am not very familiar with either of the
choices so I kind of need some help.

Thanks in advance!
 
I work in a laboratory, and so we use a lot of graphs. We use both Access
and Excel charts. The Excel charts are far superior to the Access charts,
and a whole lot easire to produce.
 
Are there any more +/- of each possibility?

a) stick with the graphs available in Access and deal with it
b) export data to excel, create graph, import chart back into the
report

Also, this database application will be installed on other users'
computers. Does this mean that they will need to have Excel installed
on that computer in order for them to generate the report charts if
situation B were implicated?

Thanks!
 
It really depends on what your final use for the charts are...

If you require charts that can be easily imported and editable in other
software, like Word or Powerpoint, then it is better to have Excel charts.

If you have a charts to visually depict data pulled from different tables
from Access, then it's better to keep them in Access.

As to "power and efficiency" - I think that Access is better. If you create
a chart properly, one chart can automatically become multiple charts in
Access. For example, if you want to chart Inventory items A, B,C, D for
FY02, FY03, and FY04 INVIDUALLY, setting up ONE chart (query) properly will
allow Access to output FY02, FY03, and FY04 Inventory charts automatically.
Alternatively, with just a simple change in the graph query, you can plot
Item A for each of the years, then Item B for each of the years. In Access,
one query/chart can become many very easily. (I'm probably not explaining
this well, sorry)...You can do this in Excel via PivotCharts to some extent,
but unless you write a macro to print each variation, you will have point,
click, print many times to get the same results.

I'm not sure I can say "stable" about Access charts, however. If you err in
your setup of the charts, you can have issues with the output. For example,
I had a recent problem where the graph looked fine on the screen, but
printed out incorrectly. The problem was a subtle error in my query, but it
took me a little while to figure it out.

Excel has a few chart types, ie., 2-axis graphing, that Access doesn't have.
There may be other graph "types" that Access doesn't support. For me
personally, except for the 2-axis graphing, I'm able to graph whatever I
need to in Access.

I would guess that if you will have multiple users needing these graphs for
reports (which I assume are NOT Access-based), then you are better off with
Excel, because typical users tend to be comfortable with the graphing
capabilities of Excel. Graphing in Access, while more powerful, requires
additional expertise with Access query-building and report-building that
typical users do not have.

Just my opinion. I hope this helps. I tried to be concise above, but if you
need clarification, I'll be glad to provide it. Please email the group, not
me. Thx.

Good luck!

Cameo
 
I should add that my Access charts are used ONLY in Access Reports. I have
not ever tried to export an Access graph directly for use in PowerPoint or
Word-this capability might exist, however, but I'm not familiar with it.

Cameo
 
Yes, you would have to have Excel on the desktop that is running the graph,
but you can set up an automatic Microsoft Query in the Excel spreadsheet so
that the data will update everytime you open the spreadsheet. Also, I would
print the graphs from Excel instead of pulling them back into Access,
although you can imbed a spreadsheet in an Access form or report.
 
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