Selected Fields
This area shows the fields (the name by which the information is known to the PPA database) that have been selected for display in the report. The + or - character before the name of a field identifies whether the data is to be sorted in ascending order (+) or descending order (-). A field without either of these symbols is unsorted.

Up and Down
The order in which the fields appear in the list defines the order in which they are displayed in the graph. The order of the fields in the list is changed by selecting a field then clicking on the up or down button to reposition the field in the list.

Add, Edit and Delete
The properties of an existing field e.g. ascending or descending, can be changed by selecting the field and clicking on Edit. A field is added by clicking the Add button. Both Add and Edit will open a new window called Edit Fields. A selected field can be removed from the list by clicking on the delete button.

Patient Denominator
This selection list will only be enabled if the Total Type value for at least one Selected Field is set to 'per Denominator'. It is then possible to define which Patient Denominator to use. Further details of Patient Denominators can be found in the Glossary.

Organisation Parent
This selection list will only be enabled if the Estimate Type value for at least one Selected Field is set to a value other than 'None'. It is then possible to define which Organisation Parent to use. Further details of Organisation Parent can be found in the Glossary.

Title
The title that is applied to the graph. Initially this will be set to 'Default Template'

Axis Label
The label that will be displayed on the specified axis of the graph. The actual axis that the label is applied to depends on the value of the Axis Choice radio buttons.

Axis Choice
The axis of the graph that the selected data dimension will be plotted against. This will change the way that the graph is displayed and can maximise the use of available space within the Results Canvas

Save/Delete Template
Having defined or changed the selections for a report you can display the result by selecting OK or save the changes for permanent use by selecting Save/Delete Templates and supplying a name for the template. The new template will then be available for selection from the Template list box.

OK
The Graph Template screen will be replaced by a Graph Results screen, initially displaying an estimate of how long it will take to generate the data required. When the data has been calculated the Results Canvas will display a graph with the properties defined in the template for the data dimensions specified in the Data Selector.

Cancel
The user will be asked to confirm that they wish to close the Graph Template. If the cancel is confirmed the template will be closed.

Graph Results

The name on the Results Canvas tab will be automatically generated by the system. Selecting the tab for a graph brings the graph to the front of the canvas so it can be displayed.

Allowing the mouse pointer to hover over one of the bars or lines on the graph will cause a window to be displayed detailing information about that item. For example:

Manipulating Graphs

The graph canvas is made up of various parts - for example the main graph data, graph title and the key. These can be moved around the canvas by clicking them, then by dragging & dropping them when they are selected to a new position.

Similarly you can select the items that make up the graph and change the size of them by dragging the highlighted corners in and out. Shown below.

When you click on one of the items that make up the chart, a blue outlined box appears. This box is used to manipulate the item selected. You can either move the object by clicking it and dragging it to a new position or you can resize the object by clicking on the corner of the blue outline and dragging the pointer in and out to increase decrease the size of the object respectively.

This is particularly useful if, for example, you cannot read the key because the text is too small. This is the case in the chart above. By resizing and repositioning the items on the graph you can increase the size of the key. Shown below.

Upper Toolbar

Some of the Tools on this Toolbar are available on both the Graph Template and Graph Results screens, while others are Template or Result Specific.

Tools available for Templates and Results:

Close
This button will close the currently active Template or Results tab.

Axis Selection List
A choice list for the dimension to be plotted beside the specified axis of the Graph. The actual axis to be used for the dimension is controlled by the Axis Choice radio buttons. The dimensions included in the list correspond to the three Data Selector dimensions. Different dimensions may be more suitable for displaying certain data.

Style Selection List
This selection list contains the available styles that can be used to display the data in the graph. There are ten available styles such as Bar, Line and Area Charts in 2 and 3 dimensional views. One style may be more suitable for displaying certain data than another.

Template Selection List
The system has a number of default templates providing a selection of graphs that should meet most needs which are available in this selection list. Templates created and saved by users will also be included in this list.

Graph Result specific Tools:

Takes a Snapshot of the graph or report currently displayed on screen. When clicked the current graph or report is displayed in HTML format in a new browser window. The graph or report can then be saved or printed using the browser File menu options Save As and Print.

Opens the Graph Template definition screen to allow advanced configuration of the way the data is displayed, and provides the ability to save the configuration as a template.

Only available whilst a graph is being created. When clicked the creation of the current graph is cancelled.

When clicked the information that generated the current graph is displayed in data format within the same Results Canvas. Further clicking will toggle the Results Canvas between the graph and data views. This data can then be saved using Snapshot and opened in a third-party spreadsheet package for manipulation of the data.

Lower Toolbar

Some of the Tools on this Toolbar are available on both the Graph Template and Graph Results screens, while others are Template or Result specific.

Tools available for Templates and Results:

When the Results Canvas is displaying a Graph Template the following tools can be used to define a graph for immediate use or to be saved, as a template, for future use. When the results canvas is displaying a graph that has been created from a template, they can be used to re-display the existing data selections in a different way.

Active
The tick box enables the 'freezing' of the selected data as defined by the Data Selector. This allows you to then change selections to produce another graph or report for direct comparison with the 'frozen' result. It should be noted that although the data extracted from the query will not be changed for a particular 'frozen' graph or report, the way in which that data is then displayed can still be altered. It is in effect the results of the query that are 'frozen';

Financial
The financial view includes all the prescribing attributed to the practices in an organisation as determined in each month selected in the request.

If checked the label will change to 'Historic' and the view includes all the prescribing attributed to practices that currently form part of the organisation.

For example if data for a PCT for April 2000 to March 2001 is being analysed and the PCT contains a practice that joined the PCT in October 2000: then the financial view will only include that practice's prescribing for October 2000 to March 2001 (the period in which it was part of the PCT); the historical view will include that practice's data for the whole period (as it is currently part of the PCT).

The financial view is more appropriate for comparison against budgets whilst the historical view is more appropriate for trend analysis.

The Financial/Historic check box is not available in the Health Authority version of ePACT.net which uses Current Structure Tags that are created each month and can be used by selecting the Current Structure option from the Component Menu.

Labels
Determines if a descriptive label is added to each point or column of the graph.

Period Summary
Corresponds to the Period dimension of the data selector and provides the ability to display:

• an individual result for each of the Selected Periods.
  
  
• the total value for the selected periods by choosing Accumulate Periods.
  
  
• results at a higher level of detail than the selected periods.
  For example, if 'Financial Year' is selected in the Data Selector, the results may be displayed at 'Quarter' or 'Month' detail levels.

Organisation Summary
Corresponds to the Organisation dimension of the data selector and provides the ability to display:

• an individual result for each of the Selected Organisations.
  
  
• the total value for the selected organisations by choosing Accumulate Organisations.
  
  
• results at a higher level of detail than the selected organisations.
  For example, if 'Primary Care' is selected in the Data Selector, the results may be displayed at 'Practice' detail level. The available levels of detail depend on your version of ePACT.net.

BNF Summary
Corresponds to the BNF dimension of the data selector and provides the ability to display:

• an individual result for each of the Selected Drugs.
  
  
• the total value for the selected drugs by choosing Accumulate Drugs.
  
  
• results at a higher level of detail than currently selected.
  For example, if 'BNF' is selected in the Data Selector the results may be displayed at 'Chapter', 'Section' or 'Paragraph' detail level. The available levels of detail depend on your version of ePACT.net.