How to Create an Illustrated Report

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a cliché. However, it's a cliché because it's true. Illustrated reports follow this old saying and present text, data and graphical elements in a form that makes these reports more meaningful and contextual. Creating an illustrated report might require the usage of multiple software.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Illustrated report creating software
• Data report creating software

1. Determine the kind of illustrated report that you need, as well as the required frequency of such reports. If you merely need to create a one-off report, you should first check whether you can produce that using your existing software products.
2. Find out the source of text, data and pictures for the report.
3. Create the data reports in a reporting software like Crystal Reports, Microsoft Excel, Cognos or Actuate.
4. Export the data report to word processing software like Microsoft Word or specialized illustrated reporting software like ConceptDraw Reporter. The software you use to put together all the elements and create the illustrated report must allow graphical elements to be embedded. Exporting from your reporting software and importing into the word processing software might involve several steps. Read the user guides for both the reporting software and the word processing software to determine how to do it.
5. Import and embed the pictures you need in the illustrated report. Move the picture around the data portion of the report to get the right positioning that gives an elegant and readable look to the report. The pictures should be relevant and their sizes should be well proportioned compared to the overall page layout of the report.
6. Type the text portion of the report. Most software will allow you to place text boxes anywhere on a page. That will enable you to lay out the text properly.
7. Apply a theme, if the software supports it, to maintain a consistent look and feel for the specific type of report so that it's easily recognizable.
8. Distribute the illustrated report in the native form of the word processing document. Alternatively, you can convert it into the popular acrobat format to maintain consistent readability.

Tips & Warnings

• It's easy to get carried away and pack a report with a multitude of pictures and other graphical elements. Use these elements only to add value to the report so that the user gets more meaningful information from the illustrated report than from one with only text and data.

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