Creating a line chart

This recipe will discuss another chart based report. Here, we will try to show the monthly quantity trend for the item groups over the years. The line chart is the best option for revealing the trends. This recipe will also focus on the aesthetic properties of the charts, such as color, axis design, and so on.

Getting ready

This recipe requires the Creating a column chart report recipe to be completed first.

How to do it…

1. Create a new precision design for the report. Call it line design.

2. Open the editor and insert a new chart.

3. Double click on the chart area to open the field editor. In the field editor, add the following fields as specified.

   Field	Drop area
   Year, MonthOfYearId	Category
   ItemGroupId	Series
   Qty	Data

4. In the steps discussed next, we will deal with how the aesthetics of a chart can be made better. In the General Properties window, set the Palette to SeaGreen, which will apply a different set of colors for each of the series.

5. To set up the markers for the...