Michael Alexander: Excel Dashboards & Reports For Dummies

14 Chapter 14FIGURE 14-1: Fancy formatting can be overwhelming, subduing the very data you’r...FIGURE 14-2: Charts should present data as simply as possible.FIGURE 14-3: Charts with too many chart elements can become convoluted and hard...FIGURE 14-4: Formatting large numbers to millions or thousands makes for a clea...FIGURE 14-5: Select Custom in the Category list, and enter a number format code...FIGURE 14-6: Data tables enable you to show data values without overloading you...FIGURE 14-7: Adding a data table to a chart.FIGURE 14-8: The Format Data Table task pane.FIGURE 14-9: Use chart titles to present extra layers of data without taking up...FIGURE 14-10: Using sorted data in a chart improves readability and clarity.FIGURE 14-11: Pie charts can’t clearly represent more than two or three data ca...FIGURE 14-12: Bar charts are an alternative to pie charts when you have more th...FIGURE 14-13: Sometimes you work with so much data that your charts no longer m...FIGURE 14-14: Creating separate, individual charts is often better than one con...FIGURE 14-15: A skewed aspect ratio can distort your charts.

15 Chapter 15FIGURE 15-1: Don’t use charts for charting’s sake.

1 Cover

2 Title Page

3 Copyright

4 Table of Contents

5 Begin Reading

6 Index

7 About the Author

1 iii

2 iv

3 1

4 2

5 3

6 4

7 5

8 7

9 8

10 9

11 10

12 11

13 12

14 13

15 14

16 15

17 16

18 17

19 18

20 19

21 20

22 21

23 23

24 24

25 25

26 26

27 27

28 28

29 29

30 30

31 31

32 32

33 33

34 34

35 35

36 36

37 37

38 38

39 39

40 40

41 41

42 42

43 43

44 44

45 45

46 46

47 47

48 48

49 49

50 50

51 51

52 52

53 53

54 54

55 55

56 56

57 57

58 58

59 59

60 60

61 61

62 62

63 63

64 64

65 65

66 66

67 67

68 68

69 69

70 70

71 71

72 72

73 73

74 74

75 75

76 76

77 77

78 78

79 79

80 80

81 81

82 82

83 83

84 84

85 85

86 86

87 87

88 88

89 89

90 90

91 91

92 92

93 93

94 94

95 95

96 96

97 97

98 98

99 99

100 101

101 102

102 103

103 104

104 105

105 106

106 107

107 108

108 109

109 110

110 111

111 112

112 113

113 114

114 115

115 116

116 117

117 118

118 119

119 120

120 121

121 122

122 123

123 124

124 125

125 126

126 127

127 128

128 129

129 130

130 131

131 132

132 133

133 134

134 135

135 136

136 137

137 139

138 140

139 141

140 142

141 143

142 144

143 145

144 146

145 147

146 148

147 149

148 150

149 151

150 152

151 153

152 154

153 155

154 156

155 157

156 158

157 159

158 160

159 161

160 162

161 163

162 164

163 165

164 166

165 167

166 168

167 169

168 170

169 171

170 172

171 173

172 174

173 175

174 176

175 177

176 178

177 179

178 180

179 181

180 182

181 183

182 185

183 186

184 187

185 188

186 189

187 190

188 191

189 192

190 193

191 194

192 195

193 196

194 197

195 198

196 199

197 200

198 201

199 202

200 203

201 204

202 205

203 206

204 207

205 208

206 209

207 210

208 211

209 212

210 213

211 214

212 215

213 216

214 217

215 218

216 219

217 220

218 221

219 222

220 223

221 224

222 225

223 226

224 227

225 228

226 229

227 230

228 231

229 232

230 233

231 234

232 235

233 236

234 237

235 238

236 239

237 240

238 241

239 242

240 243

241 244

242 245

243 246

244 247

245 248

246 249

247 250

248 251

249 252

250 253

251 254

252 255

253 256

254 257

255 258

256 259

257 260

258 261

259 262

260 263

261 264

262 265

263 266

264 267

265 268

266 269

267 270

268 271

269 272

270 273

271 274

272 275

273 276

274 277

275 278

276 279

277 280

278 281

279 283

280 284

281 285

282 286

283 287

284 288

285 289

286 290

287 291

288 292

289 293

290 294

291 295

292 296

293 297

294 298

295 299

296 300

297 301

298 303

299 304

300 305

301 306

302 307

303 308

304 309

305 310

306 311

307 312

308 313

309 314

310 315

311 316

312 317

313 318

314 319

315 320

316 321

317 323

318 324

319 325

320 326

321 327

322 328

323 329

324 330

325 331

326 332

327 333

328 334

329 335

330 336

331 337

332 339

333 340

334 341

335 342

336 343

337 344

338 345

339 346

340 347

341 348

342 349

343 350

344 351

345 352

346 353

347 354

348 355

349 356

350 357

351 358

352 359

353 360

354 361

355 362

356 363

357 364

358 365

The term business intelligence (BI), coined by Howard Dresner of Gartner, Inc., describes the set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using fact-based support systems. Practically speaking, BI is what you get when you analyze raw data and turn that analysis into knowledge. BI can help an organization identify cost-cutting opportunities, uncover new business opportunities, recognize changing business environments, identify data anomalies, and create widely accessible reports.

Over the past few years, the BI concept has overtaken corporate executives who are eager to turn impossible amounts of data into knowledge. As a result of this trend, whole industries have been created. Software vendors that focus on BI and dashboarding are coming out of the woodwork. New consulting firms touting their BI knowledge are popping up virtually every week. And even the traditional enterprise solution providers, like Business Objects and SAP, are offering new BI capabilities.

This need for BI has manifested itself in many forms. Most recently, it has come in the form of dashboard fever. Dashboards are reporting mechanisms that deliver business intelligence in a graphical form.

Maybe you’ve been hit with dashboard fever. Or maybe your manager is hitting you with dashboard fever. Nevertheless, you’re probably holding this book because you’re being asked to create BI solutions (that is, dashboards) in Excel.

Although many IT managers would scoff at the thought of using Excel as a BI tool, Excel is inherently part of the enterprise BI tool portfolio. Whether or not IT managers are keen to acknowledge it, most of the data analysis and reporting done in business today is done by using a spreadsheet. You have several significant reasons to use Excel as the platform for your dashboards and reports, including