Hi Steven,
Ah, this is an oldie but a goodie, and gives me an opportunity to share a (rather advanced) technique I developed several years ago, but have yet to make the time to blog about. Perhaps this will suffice.
Let's start with some theory, The colors on bar charts are presented in a particular standard order (eg blue, red, yellow) with each series being automatically assigned in order. So, although you cannot "pick" the color as such, you can "coerce" the color by using an OR to that ensures you always have at least one row returned for each series you need, and then sort the data in known manner.
In your case I would:
- add a zzSample Employee user with a dropdown Employee Type of "01 - Employee" (eg blue series)
- add a zzSample Not Used user with a dropdown Employee Type of "02 Not Used" (eg red series)
- add a zzSample Contractor user with a dropdown Employee Type of "03 - Contractor" (eg yellow series)
- add one hour entry (however small) for each of them, on some known date (eg Jan 1, 2000)
- in addition to your existing filter (which I presume is hours for certain users within some timeframe), add an OR to pick up these "legend" hours
- change the report grouping to stack the bar by Employee type
In this fashion, the "zzSample" users will always be present, always be sort the same, and in turn always force the same colors on the chart, including "burning" a color you do not want (such as red, which we're taught to associate to a problem).
Regards,
Doug
