>thanks for your help,
>... but i seem to be a bit stuck still
>
>what i want to do is form the graph and print it out. i am using a ole bound control working of the data stored in a table column using the append general command
>APPEND GENERAL oledata DATA gcdata CLASS msgraph
>
>this works fine. i place an ole bound control on a report and off i go.... but how do i change the graph type ????? i can only imagine i have to save it to the field as a different class type.

Your on the right track here. This is some code that I have working for a graph currently in production. No complaints from the users.

Append General curGraphs.Age Class "MSGraph.Chart" Data lcGeneralString

Once you have this you can either double-click on the field and edit it to what you want or you can programatically format it as an olebound object on a form (hidden).

Setting the look you want is not difficult, but finding the values is. Here is a piece of the code I used to do a age pie chart.

With ThisForm.oleAgeGraph
  .ControlSource = "curGraphs.Age"
  .Type = 5
  .ChartArea.Font.Name = "Arial"
  .ChartArea.Font.Size = 8
  .ChartArea.Font.Bold = .F.
  .HasLegend = .T.
  .Legend.Position = -4107
  .Legend.Interior.ColorIndex = -4142
  .Legend.Border.LineStyle = -4142
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(1).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(1).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(2).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(2).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(3).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(3).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(4).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(4).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(6).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(6).DataLabel.Type = 4
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(7).HasDataLabel = .T.
  .SeriesCollection(1).Points(7).DataLabel.Type = 4
EndWith

A nice trick someone showed to me is to start recording a macro in excel and format a graph the way you want there. Stop recording and edit the macro to get the needed values.

Good Luck