It is very difficult to look at a database containing thousands of records and make much sense of it. There’s simply too much information to cope with. To make the information more understandable, it needs to be summarized. Panorama can rapidly summarize a database by converting it into an according to the categories you specify. Starting with raw data, click on the field you want to categorize by (you can also create a multi-level outline with multiple category fields).
To divide the database into categories, choose Group Up from the Sort menu. As you can see, the database is now sorted in order by category. In addition, Panorama has added several new records to the database. These are called summary records and can be identified by their blue background color and by the fact that they are displayed in bold. These are temporary records that exist only while you are analyzing the data. They are never written to the master Rails database.
The next step is to calculate subtotals, which is done with the Total command in the Math menu. This command scans the database and calculates the subtotal for each category, as well as an overall total at the bottom of the database (not visible in this illustration).
The next step is to collapse the outline, which hides unnecessary detail so that we can focus on just the numbers that are important to us. For our example we’ll use the Outline Level dialog (Sort menu) to collapse the database so that only the summary information is visible. In addition to the subtotals you can also now see the grand total at the bottom. Notice that the background blue color for the grand total is slightly darker than the other summary records.
Using the Expand and Collapse tools (in the tool palette) the summaries can be expanded or collapsed to show more or less detail. Here we’ve used the Expand tool to examine the maintenance detail.
When you are finished with the summary, use the Remove Summaries command (Sort menu) to remove the subtotals and totals, leaving only the original data. You can then continue with normal operations on your database (data entry, sorting, searching, etc.).
Subgroups
Groups can be sub-divided into even smaller subgroups. For example if you had arranged a mailing list into groups by state, you could further divide each state into subgroups by city. You can continue subdividing the groups up to six times (up to seven levels of groups within groups). To subdivide groups into smaller groups, first click on the field you want to sub-group, then use the Group Up or Group Down command again.
Grouping by Week, Month, Quarter, or Year
When a group command is used on a field containing dates, Panorama will ask you how long each group should be—a week, month, quarter, or year.
Select the period and press Group to arrange the data into groups. Note: The dates must be stored using the date data type, not text. You can group dates more than once—for instance first by year, then by month. This produces subgroups (in this case by month) within the larger groups (by year).
Advanced Topics
To learn more about grouping and data outlines, see Chapter 10 of Panorama Essentials or the Panorama Handbook.
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