The Excel Charts Blog Effective Charts and Dashboards for Excel users Home Blog Courses» Examples Dashboards Theory» Practices» Chart Types» About How to create a dashboard in Excel Search...
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Effective Charts and Dashboards for Excel users
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How to create a dashboard in ExcelHome → Dashboards → How to create a dashboard in Excel
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Excel dashboards and executive reports are powerful, fairly easy to design and
a great way to improve your Excel and data visualization skills. Because of its
flexibility, you can virtually design any dashboard in Excel exactly the way you,
or the users, imagined. And, best of all, you may want to implement it yourself
or consider it a prototype and ask IT to implement it.
Once you know what will the Excel dashboard be used for and what kind of
metrics users expect, there are three major areas that you must address when
creating it:
how to bring data into your spreadsheets;
how to manage the data and link it to the dashboard objects, like charts
and tables;
how to design the dashboard report.
Let’s take a look at each of them.
How to bring data into your Excel dashboard
Yes, Excel is a very flexible tool, but to create an Excel dashboard you can’t just
paste some data and add a few charts, can you? You must maintain and update
it and, if you want to decrease the cost associated with those tasks, you must
impose some structure to your data.
Usually, the data should not be entered directly into the spreadsheet. You may
copy /paste the data, but the best option is to connect the spreadsheet to the
data source. There is a standard way to communicate with external databases
called ODBC. You can use it to connect your dashboard to a table in Access or
Oracle, for example). Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to establish a
connection between Excel and Access (this is one of the modules in
my dashboard tutorials):
(click the button on the bottom right to maximize the video)
Once you have that connection established, every time the data changes at the
source it also changes in the spreadsheet, after refreshing. Keep in mind that a
good practice is to minimize the amount of data you bring into your
spreadsheet. If you don’t need it, don’t use it. Calculations should be performed
at the source, if possible.
Data can be imported using two basic structures: a flat file and a pivot table.
As a rule of thumb, I would say that a pivot table tends to create larger files but
the calculations will be faster. The flat file will be smaller but, if you need
complex formulas to select the data, performance will suffer (you must test this
in your own project).
The example below shows the growth of Walmart (this is a bonus file available
in themembers area). The user can select a year and a radius. Then the total
population (at county level) is calculated for each catchment area. Population
characteristics like sex and age structure is also available.
Obviously the dataset is very large. It’s not “big data”, but 11 million records
are not easily managed in Excel. I had to use pivot tables, tables and crosstabs
in Access. New to Excel 2010, you can synchronize pivot tables that share the
same data source with slicers, And I used them in this file. Excel tables are also
great, because they greatly reduce calculation time if you have lots of formulas.
(click to see a larger animation)
How to manage the data and link it to the dashboard objects
If you use pivot tables you can extract the data using the GETPIVOTDATA
function. If you use a flat file, there is a vast array of formulas you can use, like
database formulas (DSUM, DGET), lookup (VLOOKUP, MATCH, INDEX) or
math formulas (SUM, SUMIF, SUMPRODUCT).
Having many formulas and calculations is dangerous to your dashboard
integrity. Actually, you shouldn’t use formulas at all. That’s impossible, of
course, but you get the idea. Fewer formulas mean a safer, more reliable,
easier to maintain dashboard. You can decrease this by using pivot tables.
That’s one of the reasons I choose them by default.
Named Ranges
Do I have to tell you that you should document your work? OK, I’ll tell you: yes,
you should. But you can simplify that boring task by using named ranges. I am
sure this is a familiar example: “=Sales-Expenses” is better than “=$G$4-
$H$5”.
Named ranges not only help you making your formulas cleaner and easier to
read, but they also play a key role in data management for Excel dashboards.
Example: let’s say that the next update adds a new column to your table. If you
don’t use named ranges you’ll have to change every single formula and add
that extra column manually. Withdynamic named ranges, the extra column is
immediately available. This means less and more reliable work.
Dynamic Charts
I am a truly believer in dynamic
charts. Dashboards that the user can’t interact with don’t make much sense to
me. All my dashboards have controls to change markets, change products,
change sales territories, whatever. What is important is thatthe user must be
able to interact with the dashboard and build his/her knowledge by
exploring the available data. Some managers prefer a static dashboard
(perhaps just a sheet of paper, or a PDF file), but even then you should
implement interaction, because it will be easier to create those static reports
(you can automate them).
If you are creating interactive charts you will probably need dynamic ranges.
You can do it using the OFFSET() function. In the video above you can see an
example.
Macros
OK, you are not a programmer (I am not) but you should consider using some
macros to speed up some repetitive tasks. Also, some cool things that you can
add to your dashboards can only be done using macros, like greeting the users
and selecting the right profile when they open the dashboard (you may want to
read the discussion around the use of VBA in Excel dashboards).
Often all you need to do is to record a macro, add a FOR NEXT or a FOR EACH
loop, make simple changes to make sure the macro points to the right cell. If
you’ve never recorded a macro, here is a very basic example:
Sub Macro1()
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=ROW()*5"
End Sub
So, in the active cell, enter the formula “=ROW()*5″. Instead of the active cell,
let’s tell Excel where we want the formula, using Range instead of ActiveCell:
Sub Macro1()
Range("A5").FormulaR1C1 = "=ROW()*5"
End Sub
Now we need to enter the formula 500 times, starting in cell 5:
Sub Macro1()
For i = 5 To 505
Range("A" & i).FormulaR1C1 = "=ROW()*5"
Next i
End Sub
This is all you have to do, most of the time:
Define what cells should be selected, using the RANGE function;
Use a variable (i) instead of row number;
Add a loop.
It’s not always this simple, but you don’t have to be a programmer to take
advantage of Excel macros, and probably there is the right macro waiting for
you. Search the web and you’ll find it. Suppose you want your dashboard to
display a specific market when a user opens the file. You have a table assigning
markets to users, but how do you identify the user? Well, you could try these
macros.
How to design the dashboard report
If you like the kind of charts that you find in marketing-oriented tools like
Crystal Xcelsius let me tell you this: they don’t work. There is a first wow! and
then their uselessness starts creeping in. This is not a matter of opinion only: I
tried (and failed) to replicate my Demographic Dashboard (see below) using
Xcelsius and detailed the process in a series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), so I know
why these tools are useless for serious work. Don’t try to use Excel to mimic
them.
You may still be using Excel 2003. Excel 2003 chart defaults are ugly and you
should avoid them like the plague (and make sure you select the acceptable
formats). Excel 2007 and 2010 are much better, but they still need some work.
Throughout this blog you’ll findmany charting tips, and tips to improve your
Excel dashboard, so I will not elaborate much on this. The basic premise is
this: a chart is used to discover actionable patterns in the data, and you
should do your best to show those patterns.
This means that you should remove everything that has no added value (3D
effects, backgrounds, etc), create a hierarchy of focus and context data (make
relevant data stand out, using color carefully) and add at least a basic form of
interaction (let users select the series, for example).
Resources
The reference in dashboard design if of course Stephen Few’s
book, Information Dashboard Design. Other recommended reading are John
Walkenbach’ Excel Bible (2003or 2007) and Excel Charts (2003 or 2007);
Tomothy Zapawa’ Excel Advanced Report Development (2003 or 2007);
Michael Alexander’s Excel 2007 Dashboards and Reports for Dummies and Jon
Peltier’s blog.
More than One Way to Skin a Cat
While you should have a clearly defined framework (allow interaction, connect
to external data sources, focused design, effective chart formats) the way you
implement is pretty much up to you. That’s what I wanted to prove with my
video tutorials. They use the same data set, and a similar output, but each one
uses a different set of techniques:
The VBA version uses pivot tables to get the data and a few recorded
macros to synchronize them and process user input;
The Lookup version uses a spreadsheet database (basically a table that
you paste into a sheet) and lookup functions (VLOOKUP, MATCH, OFFSET)
to get the data for the dashboard report. Personally I don’t feel very
comfortable with spreadsheet databases (more maintenance, more error
prune, slower) but it is a good starting point to learn advanced Excel
techniques (and sometimes is it your only option).
After some discussion on the merits of using VBA (Excel Dashboards: Do You
Need VBA?) I decided to make a VBA-free Excel dashboard; It mainly uses pivot
tables and the powerful GETPIVOTDATA function. It is a well balanced version:
it is slower than the previous version but since it doesn’t use VBA some users
don’t have to leave their comfort zone.
The context will help you to decide the best way to skin your cat, but feel free
to test multiple paths. In general, a large number of formulas will degrade
performance, while VBA improves it (but may be off-limits for you).
An Excel Dashboard is the Perfect Excel Learning Tool
Think about it: when you make a dashboard you need to know more about your
organization, you must interact with users and managers, analyse data, make
charts, connect the dashboard to the formal information structure (if possible),
use advanced formulas and functions… It’s a complex and usually very
enjoyable task for an information worker. You have to use a wide range of
skills, and that can only improve your position in the workplace.
This is why an Excel dashboard is a great business tool and also a great
learning project that goes beyond Excel and helps you to improve your lifelong
skills. Start making one today!
Shameless plug: try my step-by-step video tutorials.
My Excel dashboard tutorials will guide you from a blank sheet to a fully
functional dashboard and you’ll be able to apply the techniques to your own
projects in no time. Here is an overview:
2 tutorials;
24 modules;
more than 4 hours of step-by-step video tutorials covering dynamic ranges,
advanced pivot table techniques, interactive charts, advanced Excel
functions and more;
lifetime access.
Try them now!
(Two dashboard courses only $97.00. Lifetime access, 30-day, no questions
asked, full money-back guarantee. Pay securely with Paypal even if you don’t
have a Paypal account.)
Share with:
More
You may also be interested in:
1. Excel dashboard competition
2. How to create a thematic map in Excel
3. Performance vs flexibility in Excel: Demographic Dashboard Lookup Edition
4. The Excel Demographic Dashboard in StarOffice/OpenOffice? Not yet.
5. Fighting IT? Prototype an Executive Dashboard in Excel
On September 16, 2007 / Dashboards, Featured / 49 Comments
49 Comments
1.MICHAEL GAFFNEY
5:43 pm on September 18, 2007
This is great. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
2.JON PELTIER
12:40 pm on October 22, 2007
“by the end of the trial period I must have a working Crystal Xcelsius version
of…”
If you *need* an Xcelsius version of your dashboard, then stop reading this
blog. Jorge is showing how to design an information-dense but practical and
usable one-screen data display. Xcelsius is good for dashboards and cockpits
and other glitzy texture-rich but information-neutral decorations.
Jorge -
This is a good start-up example of what a dashboard can really be.
3.ADMIN
5:37 pm on October 22, 2007
Thanks Jon. I hope you don’t find my charts too advanced for you…
No matter what we say, people will keep using Xcelsius and similar tools for
eye-catching hum… things, create 2D pie charts in Excel and put flying clip
art in their presentations.
The only strategy that could really work regarding visualization is to show
the options, explain the differences, make people understand the trade-offs
and let them decide.
Since everyone uses Excel, it makes sense to use something like my
dashboard as a benchmark and try to replicate it with other tools. By
explaining and discussing each step you end up either proving yourself wrong
(if you don’t like Xcelsius) or undermining it from inside because you expose
its weaknesses in several standard tasks.
4.JOHN
10:02 pm on November 29, 2007
If you like this stuff then hopefully you might also like the stuff we do
athttp://www.instantatlas.com – based on many of the same visualisation
principles championed by people like Stephen Few but, like XCelsius, does
use Flash for interactivity.
You can see examples for world population on http://www.geohive.com, a site
we like and we have supported.
5.SEGUN
8:19 pm on December 6, 2007
You are a solution provider
6.DEE KARVOIS
4:52 pm on January 20, 2008
Is there anyway to export the dashboard data into an excel spreadsheet? we
receive a dashboard created in excel but we want to export it into a
spreadsheet. Can it be done? Is it difficult? thahk you
7.
ADMIN
6:17 pm on January 20, 2008
Dee: I am not sure if I understand your question. If you mean exporting the
data from the Demographic Dashboard to a new spreadsheet, you can just
copy one of the pivot tables to the new workbook and use it the way you
want.
Another option is to copy the data from the Access query and past it into the
new sheet. Please note that there are more than 200,000 records in that
query, so they will not fit into the 65 thousand rows you have available in
Excel (try the crosstab query with years in columns).
Hope this helped.
8.DALE
8:43 pm on March 2, 2008
The main problem with Excel dashboarding is keeping them updated as new
data arrived.
I think I;ve alreadt spent 40% of my professional life redefining ranges for
charts and dashboards in Excel.
Dale
http://www.sisense.com
“Dashboards, Reports and Guided Analytics”
9.ADMIN
10:43 pm on March 2, 2008
Dale
Yes, it can be a problem, but if the structure doesn’t change much you can
manage updates with dynamic ranges. Another option is to make sure that
range width or height doesn’t change (for example, by showing only the last
24 months).
10.DASHBOARD GEEK
5:57 am on March 28, 2008
Thank you dale
I tried the Prism product in your comment
and i have to say im impressed, created all my excel dashboards (100)
in a few hours!
Do you know how much it cost?
Eian
11.SAM G
7:11 pm on April 7, 2008
Jorge – Great work on this. I purchased the training and it has been very
helpful to me in setting some things up. I’ve got a question for you – in your
training you use offset named ranges to retrieve pivot table data. The ranges
use absolute references. This works on your tables, since changing a country
doesn’t change which columns show in the pivot tables. I’m working on
something where I’m pulling from data submitted by companies. I use a
macro to change the company name in the page field in the pivot table, and
then pull the data from the pivot. The problem is that if we don’t have data on
a company for a particular metric, than that column in the pivot table
disappears, and the named range is now pulling a different metric. Is there
anyway to reference a column of data so that no matter what column it ends
up in, excel will still grab the right data? The only workaround I’ve thought of
for this is to make one sheet for each column of data. Would love any
suggestions you have.
Thanks,
Sam
12.
ADMIN
9:52 pm on April 7, 2008
Thanks Sam. I usually solve that problem by selecting the field and turn on
the “Show items with no data” option. This way the table structure is kept
and you can easily handle the missing data.
13.DALE
10:29 am on April 30, 2008
DashboardGeek (nice name),
The product is still in beta so they don’t charge for it yet, but I contacted
their support and they said the generally, a single authoring license goes for
about 100 US Dollars a year.
14.MADHAVAN SUKUMARAN
4:09 pm on June 21, 2008
Excellant piece of information. Thanks for sharing the same.
15.ANTHONY
9:17 am on October 18, 2008
Hey,
I picked up this link in from the article about 14 misconceptions of charts.
But since reading it – I must recommend people looking at this.
http://sparklines-excel.blogspot.com/
I downloaded and started to use it just last week and published a highly
informative dashboard in hours, complete with spark lines and bullet charts.
16.GLENN
2:02 am on October 30, 2008
I’d really like to get a copy of the three versions you have listed here.
I’m interested in creating more effect reports for my job.
Thank you,
Glenn
17.ADMIN
2:17 am on October 30, 2008
Glenn, you just have to leave your email on the right side bar and they will be
sent to you. [Update: This is no longer available.]
18.DAN
4:46 am on November 5, 2008
As always great post. thanks
19.JOSEPH FLOWERS
8:47 pm on November 29, 2008
This is great, just what I’ve been looking for. I’m a very basic developer, with
goo HTML experience but little experience in actual coding technologies. I
get leads that come from our distributor site, who are interested in buyng
one of our distributorships. I want a bashboard so that I can retrieve data
from that persons geographical area. This will give me how many business
are in there are and the population as well as Business growth.
I also want to create a basic customer service data base as well, to retrieve
thier data I have entered into excell. Thanks alot.
Joe
20.RACHANA MUKHERJEE
10:32 pm on December 8, 2008
Hi Jorge,
I accidentally discovered your site and I am super impressed. I am a data
analyst at e-commerce company and am looking to streamline and and
automate reports for executives.
I am trying to expand my understanding of excel and building up my
repetoire so to speak and I realize that pivot tables and VBA are key. The
demographic dashboard is an excellent learning tool for people like me who
are looking to learn the “integration” bit by example. And, your example is
extremely clean and non-convoluted. So thank you, I am looking forward to
learning a lot from your site and tutorials.
I have two questions for you:
a) In your everyday work how do you deal with scope creep from business
users after implementing a very tedious dashboard or solution.
b) How long did it take you to finish the demographics dashboard, from
concept to completion.
21.ADMIN
12:46 am on December 10, 2008
@ Rachana: thanks for your great feedback. I wanted to show how to
synchronize several pivot tables using simple VBA, but the other versions
show that you can get similar results without code. I would try to do find
VBA-free approaches and use code when there is no other choice. For
example, I usually run a macro to detect the user id and filter the data for
that specific profile. That’s something you can’t do without code.
I don’t really have a good answer regarding the best way to deal with scope
creep. I try to create very specific information products that answer very
specific business needs, leaving everything else outside. I usually don’t need
more than some user feedback regarding the use of the tool. I would say that
a project like the demographic dashboard does not require more than a
month to implement (and a few more days/weeks for testing).
22.CHRIS CAPEL
11:37 am on February 18, 2009
The challenge is not so much in the Excel techniques (well, only a little ),
but it is more in the creativity and empathy of the dashboard designer.
Thanks Jorge, for your brilliant solutions!
23.PETER VERCO
5:31 pm on March 12, 2009
Jorge – An excellent presentation.
I frequently use live data from databases via odbc and tuned via MS query to
deliver targeted and summarised business information for live reporting. I
also use pivot tables, and have found the GETPIVOTDATA function provides
dynamic data, provided you are prepared to link the parameters to cells
outside the table, and of course, show items with no data. I have never
needed to use named ranges. Because most business information is highly
structured, I can usually provide a screen full of charts from just one pivot
table, then using a selection box or boxes on the dashboard to return the
selected data via the GETPIVOTDATA function.
24.POOJA DHINGRA
7:03 pm on April 13, 2009
Hi Jorge
I am trying to build dashborads for revenue analysis (product wise),
employee performance, budget analysis etc..Can I use the same demographic
dashborad for same or would it have to built in a different manner.
Pl advice..
Pooja
25.ADMIN
10:10 pm on April 13, 2009
@Pooja: I believe that an Excel dashboard is defined by the way it handles
the data, and not by the data itself. The three demographic dashboards
exemplify how to get the data (connecting to an external data source or
creating a spreadsheet table), how to go from there to the chart data sources
and how to create the interactive user interface. You can use the
demographic dashboard to see how these techniques can be used to work
together. Your dashboards will surely be very different, but you can use
similar techniques. For example, I’ve been creating employee performance
dashboards for several years and they typically use very different sources but
don’t need frequent updates (monthly or quarterly basis), while sales would
need a single data source but may need daily updates. In the first case, I
usually use spreadsheet tables, and in the second case I connect a pivot table
to the Oracle database.
26.POOJA DHINGRA
5:33 pm on April 14, 2009
Ta..I use Navision as my database. Can you help in buliding good dashboards
for revenue/gross margin analysis. Where from your website can I learn how
to create dashboard other than specified above.
Pooja
27.ADMIN
11:03 pm on April 17, 2009
Pooja: I am not familiar with Navision, so I can’t help you with the specifics,
but if you search for something like “Navision ODBC Excel” you’ll find a
tutorial on how to link Excel to your Navision tables. The Demographic
Dashboard uses the Access ODBC, but the process should be similar. After
you get your data into Excel you can use the usual Excel formulas to create
your dashboard.
28.T
2:59 am on August 3, 2009
Hi Jorge,
Your dashboard ROCKS!!
Just finished the dashboard tutorial and cant wait to get into creating my own
for our data. I have searched for a long time for a good quality tutorial that
covers all the essential functions for creating reports and reporting tools.
This is the most amazing tool for learning advanced Excel I have come across
and is also a shining example of Excel best practices. I wish I had this years
ago. You have a great understanding of how to communicate and teach
complex information easily and clearly.
Thank you.
T
29.ULRICH SEIDL
5:17 pm on November 26, 2009
on
http://www.hichert.com/de/software/exceldiagramme/55
you can find a lot of examples (downloadable) of excel-charts which could be
used in dashboard
on
http://www.hichert.com/de/consulting/dashboards you find selctions of well-
done dashboards and not-so-well-done….
30.EDDIE
7:00 pm on December 30, 2009
“you just have to leave your email on the right side bar and they will be sent
to you.”
Where is this location? I, too, would love to get these templates to learn from.
Thanks!
31.BILL GATES
10:52 am on January 14, 2010
Thanks Sam. I usually solve that problem by selecting the field and turn on
the “Show items with no data” option. This way the table structure is kept
and you can easily handle the missing data.
32.MANOJ KAPASHI
1:32 pm on April 22, 2010
Sir,
This is an amazingly unbelievable dashboard.
1. Would we able to replicate this dashboard after going thru your tutorial?
How long is the tutorial?
2. Does the price include with and without VBA?
33.JORGE
2:00 pm on April 22, 2010
Manoj: Thanks.
1. Yes, you will;
2: The tutorial is for the VBA dashboard only; the non-VBA tutorials are
coming soon.
34.MANOJ KAPASHI
6:40 pm on April 22, 2010
Thanks for your reply.
1. I believe I did read that the files for the non VBA and the non pivot tables
would also be supplied in the same package. Is that correct?
2. If yes, then I presume that these files will contain the source data and all
the formulae to enable us to study the construction of the dashboards on our
own since the tutorial is not available. Am I right?
35.JOHN KYLE
6:33 pm on June 14, 2010
Jorge – Thanks for the great post. Even though we all use Excel every day, it’s
easy to forget how powerful it really is for analyzing and reporting
information. Dashboards in Excel are really great – they are more flexible
than flash or ajax based dashboards because users can – with the familiarity
of Excel – extend the report to a “what if” tool by experimenting with new
values, etc.
36.NILESH
10:27 am on July 15, 2010
Very Informative…!!
Its a good start for my first Production Planning Dashboard.
Thanks Jorge..!!
37.NITGREEN - LOOKING FOR BEST WEB HOSTING
11:05 am on September 7, 2010
This is very well organized dash board tutorial, I like it as a learner VBA
Programmer, this will surely help me to build my first Dashboard at my new
job. Thanks for sharing valuable information.
38.VARUN KUMAR
2:03 am on March 26, 2011
Its very beneficial for anyone who need to learn about dashboard and excel. I
was thinking that I have so much knowledge in MS excel but after reading
your blog i learned new things and I realized that we need to update us
everytime.
Thanks Jorge.
39.VARUN KUMAR
2:03 am on March 26, 2011
It is very beneficial for anyone who need to learn about dashboard and excel.
I was thinking that I have so much knowledge in MS excel but after reading
your blog i learned new things and I realized that we need to update us
everytime.
Thanks Jorge.
40.IRIS
9:55 am on October 31, 2011
Great Blog, Jorge.
One question. Do you know if and how it is possible to get rid of the excel
menu in an excel dashboard? I know there is this function that helps doing it,
but you first have to open the dashboard in excel and then you can get rid of
it, but is it also possible to do something so that you don’t have the menu
each time you open it?
thanks!!!
41.HERU
7:04 am on November 8, 2011
good job
42.KOTI
9:37 am on November 8, 2011
excellent!!!
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Creating a VBA-free Excel dashboardHome → Dashboards → Creating a VBA-free Excel dashboard
Do you need VBA to create an Excel
dashboard? Our recent discussion clearly
shows two lines of thought: a) you should
use it because there are things you just
can’t do without VBA and if you have
access to a powerful tool you should put
it to work; b) you should avoid VBA like
the plague because the average user don’t understand it and it can cause a
serious problem if the programmer leaves the organization.
In an informal survey among friends and colleagues (all of them Excel users),
I’ve discovered that 55% doesn’t know what VBA is, 40% knows but doesn’t
want to use it, 4% uses recorded macros from time to time and 1% actually
edits the recorded macros to add some sort of functionality (well, this happens
to be me…).
The real world always depresses me…
The poll on the right seems to tell a better story, but you guys are le crème de
la crème, so I can’t use you as a representative sample, I’m sorry…
The first version of my Demographic Dashboard uses some macros to
synchronize pivot tables and to add some functionality to the user interface.
Simple stuff, really. But there is a divide, and I had to know if I could create a
VBA-free Demographic Dashboard.
That’s a the simple story behind the VBA-free Demographic Dashboard. This
dashboard uses the same data set (population by sex, age and country for the
period 1996-2050) and the final result is similar (that was the idea). But how
can you achieve the same results without VBA? Just simplify, simplify, simplify.
Let me give you some examples.
Dashboard objects
Some times we use VBA out of laziness. Take a
look at this object: I could place the background image on the sheet and use a
few lines of code to correctly place the small triangle. That was my first idea.
But why? Why don’t you just use a chart? It is simpler, safer and doesn’t
require VBA. The final solution uses a simple scatter plot. Yes, I know, it
doesn’t look like one. It’s amazing the things you can do with scatter plots.
I already published a screencast on how to create a
population pyramid, but this technique is missing. I
wanted to recreate a popular chart format in
magazines: lines to encode the current data and areas
for the reference data.
I was unable to come up with an elegant solution using
the standard available formats in Excel, so I had to improvise. This is a regular
area chart, but I use the camera tool to rotate the image to achieve this effect.
Please note that you shouldn’t use this technique if you are planning to print
your dashboard because of a well known bug in Excel (but there is also
a workaround).
In the previous version of the dashboard I used lines in a scatter plot to display
current and reference data. No need for the camera tool.
I really like this chart. It is amazing how it shows
the aging process that currently affects every
country in the world, specially if you can animate
it to see how the passage of time changes the
dependencies. As an European I find it really
scary…
In this version, the active country is shown in the
context of the active region and, unlike the previous version, it also shows the
remaining countries, so the user can see the region in context.
I usually delete grid lines, but here they are almost invisible and they actually
seem to help. Sometimes I forget that scatter plots are square by definition, but
not in this case…
I don’t have a single post discussing sparklines,
partially because I like to stick to things that everyone
can do with a standard Excel installation (and you’ll
usually need an add-in to create sparklines) and because there is so much to
say about them that I wanted to write a complete series, and I don’t seem to
find the time to do that. But you should definitively consider using them when
planning a dashboard.
What you see on the left are not exactly sparklines, just a small line chart
where each line is aligned with the country name. I kind of like these lines
jumping out of their “natural borders” (the row limits and the table itself).
Download the dashboard and compare these lines with the top ten countries in
Europe, for example.
Lately I’ve been playing a little with links to external
sources and I decided to add these two. The first one opens a Google Map with
the active country and the second one opens the CIA Factbook for the same
country. You don’t need to hard-code the links, it is just a string that is
automatically changed whenever you change your data (in this case, the name
of the country). You can also put the data into your worksheet, like I did when I
created my Excel thematic map.
There is something that you can’t do without
VBA. When you select a region, the list of
countries automatically reflects that change, but the current country is not
changed. A simple macro can easily select a new value when a different region
is selected. So, you may be comparing Angola with countries in Europe (Angola
is in Africa). Since I can’t change the default country, I added a conditional
formatting for that cell, and when the country is not found in that region the
background changes to warn the user.Share with:
More
You may also be interested in:
1. Excel dashboard competition
2. Performance vs flexibility in Excel: Demographic Dashboard Lookup Edition
3. Fighting IT? Prototype an Executive Dashboard in Excel
4. The Excel Demographic Dashboard in StarOffice/OpenOffice? Not yet.
5. 10 tips to improve your Excel dashboard
On April 9, 2008 / Dashboards / 21 Comments
21 Comments
1.JOEL HORNBERGER
3:30 pm on April 11, 2008
Interested in the dashboard file.
2.ADMIN
8:25 pm on April 11, 2008
Joel, just fill in the form and a link will be sent automatically.
3.LISA HILL
2:59 am on April 16, 2008
looking to learn about creating dashboards in excel
4.GORDON CAMERON
9:42 pm on April 16, 2008
Thanks for the info
5.TONY J
10:04 pm on February 4, 2009
An excellent file that has given me a handful of new ideas. Am already
familiar with pivot – access database setup, and wanted to see how to go
about a multi-funtional document for a varied group of customers. I may have
a couple of Qs as I get into my own design. Thanks
6.ADMIN
10:31 pm on February 4, 2009
Tony: Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to answer.
7.JOHN
2:43 pm on August 17, 2009
The file was truly awesome. It will help me with new reporting system I am
building.
8.SUMIT LAL
8:30 am on October 5, 2009
I think what you’ve done is truly awesome! Is it possible to get a copy of the
file for VBA free dashboard please? It’ll help me learn
Thanks a ton and have a good day!
9.JJ
5:18 am on December 2, 2009
I’d like to see a macro example on how to query SQL and update the
dashboard
10.JORGE CAMOES
9:21 am on December 2, 2009
JJ: The VBA-free version excludes the use of macros. You must manually hit
“refresh” to refresh the pivot table. Everything else is updated using
formulas, specially the GETPIVOTDATA() function.
11.TYPEGEEK
1:10 am on January 6, 2010
Nice work on the dashboard, but why are your line graphs not really
sparklines? I know Office 2010 will have a new sparkline tool, but isn’t a
sparkline just a small line chart?
12.JORGE
6:05 am on January 6, 2010
The dashboard was made using Excel 2003 and I wanted to avoid add-ins,
just to make sure every user replicate it with an out-of-the-box installation.
13.CRISTIAN OJEDA
6:56 pm on May 14, 2010
How obtain file example VBA-free Excel dashboard?
Thanks
14.JORGE CAMOES
7:00 pm on May 14, 2010
Cristian: a VBA-free tutorial will be available soon.
15.ZAK
7:16 pm on November 25, 2010
Hi Jorge,
I am using excel for few year and has recently develop interest in excel
dashboard. How to download your examples and is there any suggestion to
learn core concept of developing them.
Regards and thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Zak
16.STEVE VOS
10:42 pm on December 11, 2010
I’d love to look at your dashboard. I’ve never tried setting one up in that way.
Interesting stuff.
17.JASON HUI
3:00 am on December 21, 2010
Hi Jorge,
Nice work on the VBA excel free dashboard. Looking forward to learn more
on this.
18.MICHAEL RUTSTEIN
5:42 pm on January 17, 2011
Is there a way to try software free, then migrate to $47 sign up fee?
Thanks,
Mike R
19.ED RUBIO
4:19 pm on January 27, 2011
Looking to figure out how to create my own dashboards. I see there is a
sample tutorial. Would you be able to send me a link to it?
20.JORGE CAMOES
4:24 pm on January 27, 2011
Michael, Ed: Thanks for your interest. A tutorial with a trial period will be
available soon.
21.JOAO AMADO
7:42 am on May 30, 2011
Hi, cheers for your website.
I thankfully have recently found you and that your classes/tutorials make my
life a lot smoother!!
I´d lke to say thank you, keep up the good job, and please, let me know if you
´re writing other stuff.
I am in my way to finish a huge report to the company I work for – an
enormous fixed phone company down here in Brazil.
More than just a report, this excel program I built is pretty much a managing
software that will probably infuence big decisions.
You are a part of this, because I´m so attached to details when it comes to
work – and your excel tips are just wonderful.
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How To Make Excel Dashboards
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