Advanced Report Design - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 230

Column Charts
The following chart in Figure 6-62 is an example of a simple column chart. The X-axis series values are
product categories, and the Y-axis values represent annual sales revenue. In this view, the legend at the
bottom indicates the X-axis series values. Several visual elements can be modified to alter the color,
shading, borders, text, formatting, labeling, and value placement. This figure shows generally default
property settings.
Figure 6-62
Figure 6-63 shows the same chart with 3-D modeling.
3-D modeling may be used to show data in a more interesting presentation, but this can also be distract-
ing and less effective for analysis. Figure 6-64 shows a more extreme 3-D view of the same data with per-
spective. I've made a point to set this chart up with a fairly extreme 3-D and perspective view, just to
show you what can be done. This type of view tends to distort the values, and the clustering (stacking
the columns along the Z-axis) can hide some columns from view.
You have control over several 3-D properties to generate more realistic representation of the chart data.
Be careful to maintain the appropriate balance between artistry and accuracy. Notice that it's difficult to
quantify and distinguish the difference in height between the front-right column and the rightmost col-
umn in the back. The degree to which it makes sense to use these features will depend largely on the
purpose of the chart. Is it sufficient to demonstrate that one data point is less than or greater than
another, or do these points need to be strictly measurable? This type of view can be effective for making
an impact, but a flatter view is usually more appropriate to maintain accuracy.