Pie Charts: Avoiding Label Overlap?

[(PeteCresswell)]

viz: http://tinyurl.com/2cqqnf2

Note how "Other" is stepping on "Credit Card".

Can anybody point me to the property/properties that could be
tweaked to avoid that?

Class=MSGraph.Chart.8

 

[David W. Fenton]

viz: http://tinyurl.com/2cqqnf2

Note how "Other" is stepping on "Credit Card".

Can anybody point me to the property/properties that could be
tweaked to avoid that?

Class=MSGraph.Chart.8

I gave up on MSGraph over a decade ago.

 

[Tom]

Dump the data to Excel and use automation to graph from there...

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per David W. Fenton:

I gave up on MSGraph over a decade ago.

It's not exactly my favorite.

What do you use in it's place?

32-bit, Office 2003.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Tom:

Dump the data to Excel and use automation to graph from there...

I was partial to the Excel route, but it's a critical report and
the users want it in a format that suggests nobody even had a
chance to tweak the numbers.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per David W. Fenton:

and creating
them might be automatable -- I never went that far with it.

I've done quite a few automated graphs in Excel and I'd say the
control is pretty good.

But MSGraph seems like some kind of black art to me. Spent an
hour at the local Barns & Noble trying to find a book, but no
luck.

I was trolling for some alternative object/class set to use in
2003.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per David W. Fenton:

What happens if you add trailing spaces to the label that's
problematic?

Seems to be the perception more than anything else. Everybody
who receives an Excel-based report knows that it can be altered
after-the-fact.

OTOH, if they know it came from MS Access, they figure nobody but
the developer could alter it.

One might logically argue: "How about a .PDF of an Excel
spreadsheet?".... but that doesn't fly with the user and, since
doing a report in Excel takes roughly ten times the man hours
that doing one in Access does, my leaning on them to accept Excel
could be perceived as self-serving - and my inability to just
avoid two labels stepping on each other in Access might
(rightly...) be perceived as lack of expertise.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Per David W. Fenton:

It's not exactly my favorite.

What do you use in it's place?

32-bit, Office 2003.

I don't. I have my users use Excel if they need to do graphing, and
they're on their own. Excel's graphs are much better, and creating
them might be automatable -- I never went that far with it.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Per Tom:

I was partial to the Excel route, but it's a critical report and
the users want it in a format that suggests nobody even had a
chance to tweak the numbers.

What happens if you add trailing spaces to the label that's
problematic?

 

[Tom]

One might logically argue: "How about a .PDF of an Excel
spreadsheet?".... but that doesn't fly with the user and, since
doing a report in Excel takes roughly ten times the man hours
that doing one in Access does, my leaning on them to accept Excel
could be perceived as self-serving - and my inability to just
avoid two labels stepping on each other in Access might
(rightly...) be perceived as lack of expertise.

I would argue that logic is fatally flawed...Writing the code to dump
to excel shouldn't take you that long and the only reason that
manipulating the graph takes longer in Excel than in MS graph is that
you can actually do it in Excel. MS Graph is either so obtuse that
you can't work with it, or so crippled that you can't work with it...
but either way you can't work with it...

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Douglas J. Steele:

Can you put a password on the sheet that has the chart to lock it?

Sure - but that's technologically beyond the situation... they're
talking impression to the masses....

 

[David W. Fenton]

Per David W. Fenton:

Seems to be the perception more than anything else. Everybody
who receives an Excel-based report knows that it can be altered
after-the-fact.

OTOH, if they know it came from MS Access, they figure nobody but
the developer could alter it.

One might logically argue: "How about a .PDF of an Excel
spreadsheet?".... but that doesn't fly with the user and, since
doing a report in Excel takes roughly ten times the man hours
that doing one in Access does, my leaning on them to accept Excel
could be perceived as self-serving - and my inability to just
avoid two labels stepping on each other in Access might
(rightly...) be perceived as lack of expertise.

Is it impossible to embed an Excel spreadsheet graph in an OLE
control in an Access report? Or, automate Excel to create the graph,
select the result, copy it to the clipboard, then paste it into an
OLE control? I have no idea if that's possible, but you get my
point, I think -- try to get the Excel graph into your Access report
and you avoid the silly perception problems.