It is not difficult to build interactive charts in Excel that allow a user to selectively highlight a subset of the data for detailed examination. Excel’s semi-intuitive worksheet controls make this technique suitable for dynamic dashboard reports. Background Last week in Series Lines: Useful or Chart Junk?, I wrote about Excel’s “Series Lines” feature, and how [...]

At least monthly I receive a request to design a speedometer graph, or to resurrect an old tutorial which once (dis)graced my web site. It’s as though I would change my mind about these gauges if someone asked nicely. Last week I received another nice request, and this post paraphrases my response. Yes, I did [...]

The Dashboard Spy wrote about Animating Dashboard Charts with Flash on the Dashboards by Example blog. The examples in the Spy’s post were taken from our friends at Fusion Charts: financial flash dashboard demo sales flash dashboard demo sales management dashboard airline dashboard demo As I discussed in my comment to the Spy’s post is [...]

Stephen Few reviews the recent Business Objects release of Xcelsius Present in Xcelsius Present – Fast Track to Nowhere. Like the Xcelsius business intelligence application we’ve come to love, it’s full of flash and glitz, and a remarkable inability to convey information. I’ll leave Stephen to describe Xcelsius Present and the unintelligent BI templates that [...]

XL Cubed (parent company of BonaVista Systems, maker of the MicroCharts add-in for Excel) has shown some very effective dashboard report examples in a couple of recent posts. In 2008 Excel Dashboard Competition Winners the winners of the 2008 Excel Dashboard Competition are announced: 1. Wade Stokes – International Bank Dashboard Displaying many disparate Banking [...]

One of the most misunderstood terms in business today is “dashboard”. When many people hear the phrase “dashboard report”, they think of the dashboard of their car, or even the cockpit of an advanced fighter jet, with fuel gauges, speedometers, and other displays crammed into a tight space. These displays are effective in your car, [...]