Charting tips, tricks, and troubleshooting
• Verify that data is sorted in the current layout and unwanted records are omitted from the found set before creating a chart.
• Are you comparing individual data points (the price of each product in a category) or summarized data points (the sum of all products in a category)?
• Summarized data points can be text or number field type. You can count data in a text field and you can perform a variety of mathematical operations on number data (sum, average, and so on).
• If your chart displays too few data points when data is sorted, in the Chart inspector, click Data Source and select Individual record data.
• When you create a quick chart, FileMaker Pro includes axis labels based on the field you selected and the current state of the file. When FileMaker Pro can’t determine appropriate labels, it leaves labels blank. For example, if you chart individual data points such as soccer scores, FileMaker Pro labels the appropriate axis Scores. However, the labels on the opposite axis are blank if FileMaker Pro can’t determine you want to plot by player first names, last names, the team name, or the game date. If axis labels are missing, you can add them in the Chart inspector.
• If summary data looks unexpected, check the summary type FileMaker Pro applied. You can use the Summary setting in the Chart inspector to verify and the change the summary type.
• Charts created in Layout mode appear differently in the Chart Setup dialog box preview than in Browse mode depending on the layout part in which they are placed. See Placing your chart in the appropriate layout part.
• When you use a calculation to specify a title in a chart created in Layout mode, the result is based on the layout part in which the chart is located. See Placing your chart in the appropriate layout part.
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• as number in a column, stacked column, positive/negative, pie (slice data), line, area, scatter, or bubble chart
• When you chart delimited data in the current record, a calculated y-axis data series (slice data in pie charts) must return the result in a text field.When you chart delimited data, you must enter numerical data, dates, and times in the format of the current locale. Otherwise, FileMaker Pro displays an error.To remove zero data points from your chart, perform a find and omit the invalid records by entering only the = operator in the appropriate fields. If the problem persists, check and correct calculations. See Finding records except those matching criteria.If your x-axis data series contains missing values (no data), a data label is displayed on the x-axis for most chart types, but no corresponding data point is displayed. Line and area charts display a missing data point as a zero.FileMaker Pro automatically adjusts chart scale and tick marks depending on the size of the chart. Therefore, tick marks and scales might look different when viewed in the chart preview and Layout mode.FileMaker Pro does not recognize individual values in repeating fields as a data series. To chart data in repeating fields, use the List function to combine repeating data in a delimited format, then choose Current Record (delimited data) for Chart Data.