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 systemsfor 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 **

Inhalt

Part I: All about Dashboards

1. Introduction to dashboard development

2. A Critical View of Information Visualization

3. The Principles of Visualization

4. Advanced Visualization

Part II: Excel Dashboard Design Basics

5. Getting Started: Thinking Outside the Cell

6. Visual Basic for Applications for Excel, a Refresher

7. Avoiding pitfalls in Excel development

Part III: Formulas, Controls, and Charts

8. The Components of a Dashboard

9. Introducing Formula Concepts

10. Applying Formula Concepts

11. Metrics: Context and Performance

12. Introduction to Controls

13. Project Management/Gantt Chart Dashboard

14. Project Management II: Adding Decision Support

15. Introduction to Dynamic Charts

16. Chart Minis

Part IV: From user interface to presentation

17. Getting Input from Users

18. Storage Patterns for User Input

19. Building for Sensitivity Analysis

20. Perfecting the Presentation

Part V: Advanced Dashboards with Databases

21. Introduction to Microsoft Business Intelligence

22. Data Model Capabilities of Excel 2013

23. Advanced Modeling with Slicers, Filters, and PivotTables

24. Power Query and other useful tools