Dashboards for Excel

This book takes a hands-on approach to developing dashboards, from instructing users on advanced Excel techniques to addressing dashboard pitfalls common in the real world. Dashboards for Excel is your key to creating informative, actionable, and interactive dashboards and decision support systems. Throughout the book, the reader is challenged to think about Excel and data analytics differently―that is, to think outside the cell. This book shows you how to create dashboards in Excel quickly and effectively.

In this book, you learn how to:

• Apply data visualization principles for more effective dashboards
• Employ dynamic charts and tables to create dashboards that are constantly up-to-date and providing fresh information
• Use understated yet powerful formulas for Excel development
• Apply advanced Excel techniques mixing formulas and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to create interactive dashboards
• Create dynamic systems for decision support in your organization
• Avoid common problems in Excel development and dashboard creation
• Get started with the Excel data model, PowerPivot, and Power Query

Table of Contents

Part I: Dashboards and Data Visualization
Chapter 1: Introduction to Dashboard and Decision Support Development
Chapter 2: A Critical View of Information Visualization
Chapter 3: The Principles of Data Visualization in Microsoft Excel
Chapter 4: The Excel Data Presentation Library

Part II: Excel Dashboard Design Tools and Concepts
Chapter 5: Getting Started: Thinking Outside the Cell
Chapter 6: Visual Basic for Applications for Excel, a Refresher
Chapter 7: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Development and Design
Chapter 8: The Elements of Good Excel Dashboards and Decision Support Systems

Part III: Formulas, Controls, and Charts
Chapter 9: Introducing Formula Concepts
Chapter 10: Advanced Formula Concepts
Chapter 11: Metrics: Performance and Context
Chapter 12: Charts with Heart (or, How to Avoid a Chart Attack)
Chapter 13: Creating an Interactive Gantt Chart Dashboard
Chapter 14: An Interactive Gantt Chart Dashboard, Data Visualization
Chapter 15: An Interactive Gantt Chart Dashboard, Data Details on Demand

Part IV: From User Interface to Presentation
Chapter 16: Working with Form Controls
Chapter 17: Getting Input from Users
Chapter 18: Storage Patterns for User Input
Chapter 19: Building for Sensitivity Analysis
Chapter 20: Perfecting the Presentation

Part V: Data Models, PowerPivot, and Power Query
Chapter 21: Data Model Capabilities of Excel 2013
Chapter 22: Advanced Modeling with Slicers, Filters, and Pivot Tables
Chapter 23: Introduction to Power Query
Chapter 24: Introduction to PowerPivot