Introduction

Charts are without a doubt, a very powerful tool to deliver information. In IBM Cognos 10, charts got a lot of improvements. In fact, IBM Cognos 10 marks a significant improvement in a new charting engine that includes new chart types as well as many improvements in the chart properties and styles.

In addition to some new chart types introduced in Cognos 10 such as the bullet charts and tree maps, new chart properties are available such as the enhanced chart styles (colors, palettes, fills, shadows, and images), colored regions, enhanced pie/donut charts, summarizing small items, positioning and formatting notes, chart matrix layout control, and conditional formatting of items in the legend and greater control over Legend positioning.

One of the options available in Cognos 10 charts is the Summarize small items option, which can be used in pie, bar, and column charts. It allows us to focus data on top of reports; for example, the top three product lines.

In IBM Cognos 10, you have...