Archive for the ‘Visualizations’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Using Flash Progress Indicators

February 3rd, 2011

Besides being an Excel and Access guru, I moonlight as an Xcelsius expert. Because Xcelsius is so closely tied to Excel, I’ve always seen Xcelsius as an extension of the Excel BI stack. But that’s a conversation for another time.

.

A while ago, Ryan Goodman created and posted a few Flash progress indicators on his Xcelsius blog. These are Flash .swf files designed to be used as loaders for Xclesius dashboards.

Â

.

I recently had an opportunity to work on a project where I could implement these loaders into an Excel dashboard as progress indicators – a lazy man’s progress bar if you will.
» More: Using Flash Progress Indicators

4 Comments »

Posted in Access VBA, Excel VBA, Visualizations

Tags:

Using HLOOKUP in Dashboard Models

January 17th, 2011

Debra D. is currently on a mission at the Contextures Blog to cover 30 Excel Functions in 30 days. Quite the feat, considering since she also cranks out a video tutorial with each one. Anyway, the 10th function she covered was HLOOKUP. And as you may have guessed, poor old HLOOKUP didn’t even get one comment. So I’d like to give you my take on why I use the HLOOKUP function is some of my dashboard models.

. » More: Using HLOOKUP in Dashboard Models

7 Comments »

Posted in Excel Formulas, Visualizations

Tags:

Stacked Thermometer Chart

January 13th, 2011

Wendi wrote me an email the other day asking:

“Datapig you are best Excel persons in the world … how to make thermometer chart with a stacked column?”

My first international lady fan!  Could it be true?  Could I be offically too sexy for just the Continental U.S.?

While I ponder that thought, here is Wendi’s answer.…

. » More: Stacked Thermometer Chart

5 Comments »

Posted in Excel Charts, Visualizations

Tags:

10 Slick Dashboarding Ideas

December 14th, 2010

Last week, I put on a Webinar called ’10 Slick Dashboarding Ideas’.

Since it’s a pretty lazy week for most of you due to the holidays, you may have the time to watch a one hour webinar.

If you’re interested enough (and you’d like to hear my sexy whiskey laden voice) click on the picture below.

Note: I set the video to play for you automatically, and you have all the navigation controls. Enjoy!
» More: 10 Slick Dashboarding Ideas

2 Comments »

Posted in Excel Tips and Tricks, Training, Visualizations

Tags:

Excel Hero and Animated Charts

October 22nd, 2010

Daniel Ferry is the purveyor of one of the more interesting Excel Blogs out there (ExcelHero.com). His blog has the curious distinction of being the only one with an unexplicable rooster on the banner:
Excelhero

If you’ve never visted, you must. Daniel has a knack for passing on advanced Excel techniques through
» More: Excel Hero and Animated Charts

6 Comments »

Posted in Excel Charts, Excel VBA, Visualizations

Tags:

Creating a Zero Centered Scroll Bar

October 12th, 2010

Last January, I published a Pulitzer-worthy post about configuring the Scroll Bar control to work with Percentages. In the comments of that post, m-b
shared a technique he uses to create a zero-centered scrollbar. That is, configuring your Scroll Bar so that the middle value is 0, the lowest value is -100% and the highest value is 100%.

  » More: Creating a Zero Centered Scroll Bar

3 Comments »

Posted in Excel Tips and Tricks, Visualizations

Tags:

Excel Report Layout Trick

September 8th, 2010

Last night, I looked up my book “Excel Reports and Dashboards” on Amazon only to find that my first reviewer gave me 3 out of 5 stars. He gives a bunch of reasons, mostly having to do with how advanced he is and how the book is too basic for his needs. But that’s not the interesting bit. In his review he says:

“My own favorite technique — setting all of a worksheet’s columns to be very narrow and then merging cells to position the information exactly where I want it — isn’t mentioned”

 

Interestingly enough, I’ve been using that trick for several years now. I’ve always found this trick difficult to explain verbally, let alone in print. But I’ll give it a shot here.

  » More: Excel Report Layout Trick

20 Comments »

Posted in Excel Formatting Tips, Excel Tips and Tricks, Visualizations

Tags:

Selecting Hard to Reach Chart Elements

September 6th, 2010

Anyone who has worked with Excel charts extensively has inevitably encountered the “hard to reach” scenario. That is, the formatting and configuration of your chart makes certain chart elements seemingly unreachable. Today, I’ll show you a forehead-slapping trick that will both give you relief, and make you feel stupid at the same time.

  » More: Selecting Hard to Reach Chart Elements

4 Comments »

Posted in Excel Charts, Excel Tips and Tricks, Visualizations

Tags:

Selectively Hide AutoFilter Dropdowns

May 20th, 2010

During one of my nerdy adventures, I came across the need to selectively hide AutoFilter Dropdowns. That is to say, apply an AutoFilter to a table, but only let the user see and interact with one or two of the dropdowns. Here’s the deal:

  » More: Selectively Hide AutoFilter Dropdowns

9 Comments »

Posted in Excel Tips and Tricks, Excel VBA, Visualizations

Tags:

The Trouble with Chart Data Tables

April 26th, 2010

Chart Data Tables are actually very useful for showing plotted values without inundating your audience with a gaggle of chart labels. I use them all the time.

 

My problem with them is that their uglier than a bag of lips. For all their usefulness, they sure do emit that “1997″ feel.  Luckily, Excel gives you a few options that help dial back the “ugly” on your chart Data Tables.

  » More: The Trouble with Chart Data Tables

9 Comments »

Posted in Excel Charts, Excel Tips and Tricks, Visualizations

Tags: