Pie Chart Style Status Icons

Today a visitor stopped by the blog and sent me this message via my MeeboMe chat window:

[14:40] meeboguest######: I'm trying to insert a 4 section circle icon that is shaded in different ways. I'm using it to track progress on different projects. So I need a total of five different icons. completely unshaded, 1/4 shaded, 1/2 shaded, 3/4 shaded, and 4/4 shaded. where do i find these icons?

Sadly, I was away from my computer at the time. Here's my suggestion anyway:

I don't know of a good set, but these are nice to have for your dashboards and status reports. I say just create your own. Here's a simple set I created in 5 minutes using Microsoft Paint. I'm sure others among you are far more creative, so feel free to comment and share your icon collections.

Combine these images with my post on Pulling Images in Excel, and you could have a pretty slick status report. Be sure to remember the work-around when using Excel 2007.

Enjoy...

Excel_Geek

More In-Cell Charting - Handy Little Add-In Called SparkMaker

I guess you could say the Excel_Geek's on a bit of an in-cell charting kick.

A couple weeks back, though, after reading one of my recent posts on in-cell charting, I reader shot me some information about a handy little Excel add-in called SparkMaker from a German company called Bissantz & Company GmbH.

Now, I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again: one of the single most useful applications for in-cell charting is dashboard reporting -- you know, cramming a lot of trend-type data onto a single page view to give users a quick glance at their overall operations. One thing I hadn't figured out how to do using the in-cell charting techniques I've described previously is how to get an entire trend series of data represented in a chart in a single cell. I mean, each of the "bars" you create in that way "lives" in its own cell. How can I get them all into one cell?

Meet SparkMaker. By using its own set of true type fonts and special functions, SparkMaker can do this in a heartbeat. Check out the image below (click it to open it larger in a new window):



I have an entire series of data that is important to me for trend analysis, though on my dashboard report, I really only need to see the current value, but it would be nice to also get an idea as to what the trend has been. Using SparkMaker, I create an in-cell line chart of the whole series of values. So I can see, "Nearly $49 million in revenues...nice...and it looks like we're on the upswing." All in two cells rather than having to derive it from a series of ten data points or using a big, clunky traditional Excel line chart.

Sparkmaker also does pie charts, which I really like for the same reason. How hard is it to get a traditional Excel pie chart small enough to fit nicely into a dashboard report? Hard. But with SparkMaker, it's a simple formula:

=SparkPie(C5)

Change the font size and color as you like, even dynamically, using conditional formatting, like this (click it to open it larger in a new window):



As I'm typing this I'm thinking of other ways I'd use these pie charts...

Now, at 199.95 (USD) for the "Pro" edition and 59.95 (USD) for the "Basic", SparkMaker is not free, but they do offer a try-it-before-you-buy-it free trial, and I recommend giving it a spin.

Later,

Excel_Geek

Write Your Own Excel E-Book?

Charley Kyd recently posted a new article on ExcelUser.com about writing your own Excel-related e-book. Interesting...

Maybe I should write my own e-book on Google "hacks" using Excel and VBA. Maybe an e-book on building your own direct email marketing system using Excel, Outlook, Outlook Remption, and VBA...

Charley's article lays out a nice example of how writing an e-book might stack up against writing a traditional book, financially, and she talks about her most recent e-book on Excel Dashboard Reporting. She doesn't say exactly how much she's made with that book, but I can tell you this much: I've been an affiliate marketer of her book on dashboard reporting for a few months, and I've helped her quite a few already...on my tiny little blog!

I'm going to mull around this idea of writing an e-book for awhile, and I'll keep you all posted.

P.S. I want to pass along my sincerest thanks to all of my loyal readers, including the growing list of Excel_Geek Blog_Mail service subscribers. It's you all that make thoughts of writing an e-book on Excel even within the realm of reality.

Thank you,

Excel_Geek

Great article by ExcelUser on VBA Standards for Excel Programmers

I was just reading another article by Charley Kyd over at ExcelUser (the guys with the sweet Excel Dashboard package for cheap!) on VBA standards for Excel "programmers." The article talked about providing documentation, and about using "Option Explicit".

While, I've been fairly meticulous about providng both "in-line documentation" (explanatory comments) and "title blocks" containing a general purpose statement for each macro, I especially appreciated the discussion on "Option Explicit" to remove the "variant by default" variable types. This is not something that I've routinely done, but will certainly endeavor to do from now on, as the benefits include enhanced processing performance and more easily identifiable errors.

While on the ExcelUser site, I also learned two other new things:

1. For all of you stock-traders, you can get a free dashboard-style report for any company on the market.


2. For all of you with your own Excel-related blogs or website, ExcelUser has a great Affiliate Marketing system. They'll pay you 30% on all sales you refer. I've signed up and have already referred 6 sales! Wow! Check it out.

Getting more requests for Excel dashboard-type solutions

Everybody,

I have recently be getting quite a few requests for Excel "dashboard"-type solutions -- New York Jan, Washington (State) Stewart, West Virginia Doug, most recently. That is, what people seem to want are quick, easy one or two page reports that quickly condense down the most important metrics that concern them -- be they sales figures, units sold, inventory counts, daily trading volume, etc.

I'll keep cranking these out as fast as I can, but I do feel obliged to tell you that my good friend Charley Kyd's Excel Dashboard Kit is available for $0.05 less than my $50 fee, and it incudes her 150-page e-book, Dashboard Reporting With Excel, all the files created for the book, many example dashboard reports, two workbook databases, which contain actual performance information for Microsoft and Wal-Mart, and her special "Postage Stamp" report that can display 110 charts on one printed page, which uses a well-documented macro that populates the report page.

Now, I realize that what makes my $50 Project service attractive to many people is that they don't want to have to spend hours submitting questions to user forums, waiting and hoping for someone to answer their question, hoping the answer is correct, and trying to decipher the instructions, etc. They simply have a problem that needs solved and they want it solved now. If they learn how the solution was created, that's merely a bonus. (For those of you who haven't requested a $50 Project and received the solution, I do include meticulous documentation, explanation, and instructions in my solutions.)

Realizing this, if you simply want a dashboard-type solution created for you, or if you would like a starting point from which you can learn, I'll happily do it for you for $50, but just know that you can buy Charley's kit for $49.95, and have all you need to create and modify all the dashboard reports you'll ever need.

Now I'm off to crank out some $50 projects. Keep 'em comin'!

Update on the Excel Dashboard Kit - Quantity Discounts for companies

I just got a note from Charley Kyd over at ExcelUser, and they're rolling out a new quantity discount program, so that companies can get ahold of the kits for multiple users, and save substantially. Here's what she wrote:

"The Excel Dashboard Kit is licensed to a single user, not to an entire company. I recently received a request from a lady who wanted to purchase a quantity of kits. Here is the discount schedule I gave her:

Units Discount
2 = 20%
6 = 30%
10 = 40%
300 = 50%
500+ = 55%

These are approximiateldy the discounts that book publishers offer, except that they are slightly more generous for small quantities."

If your company is thinking about implementing a dashboard reporting system (or beefing up the one you have), be sure to check out Charley's prouducts.

Have you guys checked out Excel User®'s book on dashboards?

I just recently stumbled upon Charley Kyd's definitive book - Dashboard Reporting with Excel - on creating and managing Excel-based management "dashboards," which are streamlined, multi-metric management reports that visually represent key data and trends in one easy-to-grasp document.

In a past life I worked for a company that was very into management dashboards, and this book would have certainly given me an edge. The book is available for less than $30, but if you're serious about starting a management dashboard system or enhancing the one you've got, spring for the whole kit, which is still less than $50.

I say, get a copy, read it.

Out.