I have a simple database that contains my fountain pen inventory. I have found a calculation via this forum that tells me how many pens I have from each manufacturer (Sheaffer, Parker etc)which forms the vertical axis of my bar graph. The issue I have (simple to you guys, is that I have 33 Sheaffer pens. The correct total is shown on the vertical axis, but my horizontal axis shows 33 seperate bars for Sheaffer (working on current found set which I understand), but I only want one bar on the horizontal axis for each manufacturer. I'm not sure if a calculation will do this or if a related table would be better which has a single record for each manufacturer. Please go easy on me, I'm doing my best to learn.

A related table which has a single record for each manufacturer would be better - and not only for your current issue.

I have found a calculation via this forum that tells me how many pens I have from each manufacturer

And that calculation is...?

A related table which has a single record for each manufacturer would be better - and not only for your current issue.

And that calculation is...?

GetSummary( Total Pens In Collection; Manufacturer)/1

Thanks for the advice comment. Believe I need to create a many to one relationship then? Whenever I add a new manufacturer to my main table I would like to automatically create a record for that munfacturer in my new table. If that manufacturer already exists then a new record won't be created. I know a little about the the theory, it's just making these things happen that's the hard part.

GetSummary( Total Pens In Collection; Manufacturer)/1

Not sure why you need this calculation - even less sure what dividing by 1 achieves. It seems to me that either your records are not sorted by manufacturer, or your chart is not set up to "show data points for groups..." (see attached).

Whenever I add a new manufacturer to my main table I would like to automatically create a record for that munfacturer in my new table.

That's going to be difficult. A simpler method would be to create a new manufacturer in the Manufacturers table, and enter the pen into a portal on the same layout.

GroupChart.zip

I love the way you made that look so easy!

Can I ask a couple of questions? You recommended a related table with a single manufacturer in each record but then said that it would be difficult to do that the way I wanted it to work automatically. Why is that?

Would you mind amending your example file to show the same chart but with percentage of pens per manufacturer instead of total just so I can see how it's done?

it would be difficult to do that the way I wanted it to work automatically. Why is that?

Because you need to enter the name somewhere where it will exist temporarily until a decision is made. To make this decision, you need to find out if the name already exists, and then either create a new record for it in Manufacturers, or get the correct ManufacturerID from Manufacturers and use it instead of the entered name. All this needs to be carefully set up by you, the developer.

Moreover, if you mistakenly enter "Shaeffer" instead of "Sheaffer", the automatic mechanism will create a new manufacturer without hesitation - unless you devise another elaborate mechanism to guard against that.

Would you mind amending your example file to show the same chart but with percentage of pens per manufacturer

How about changing the chart's type to pie chart?