How to properly link Excel Charts to Access Report?

[djrickel]

I am exporting data to an Excel spreadsheet, which creates a couple of charts that I need to link to an Access report. There are a couple of worksheets each containing several charts.

1) when I create an unbound object box and link the spreadsheet file to it, it only picks up part of the first chart and it looks bitmap-ish and terrible.

2) how do I link the second, third, etc. charts? to the report?

3) tried copy/past special/paste link/microsoft excel 2003 worksheet - which works - but it shows up like a bitmap instead of a smooth-looking graphic. If I do this in a Word doc, it looks beautiful. In an Access report, it looks amateurish and won't fly by management.

Is Access not able to embed or link Excel charts in a professional-looking manner?

What's the secret?

[June7]

You used this method? http://www.brighthub.com/computing/w...les/26778.aspx

Did you select Link instead of Icon?

[djrickel]

Yes, exactly but I tried both embed and link with the same result. It just looks terrible.

[djrickel]

Let me clarify...I followed those instructions and chose Link. I embedded with copy/past type action.

[June7]

That bites! I've never done this so just did a little test. I tried with and without Link checked and the graph shows nicely for both. Had to position the graph in the upper left corner of worksheet. No idea how to get other graphs from same workbook.

Why did you use copy/paste? I used the Unbound OLE Object dialog as described in the link.

Then I tested copy/paste and it also shows a well-defined graph, colors and all.

Unfortunately, don't see the display update with changes in the worksheet data for any of these.

Did you test on a different computer?

An option might be to set a data link to the Excel worksheet and then build graph object within Access.

[djrickel]

If a 3-D type chart, like the 21st Century pie chart is used, the shadow shows up in dots. I'm not using Access to chart because the it produces charts that look like a first grader with bright colored markers drew it--very ugly. Management says that info isn't enough, that it has to be portrayed in a sophisticated way--which has been a real challenge/nightmare.

I have found that linking each chart to a Word doc then copying to Access works MUCH better for some reason. I'm terrible at VBA so could someone give me an idea of how I could automate this? Is there a Do.Cmd for something like this?

Thanks.