Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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It's the nature of the computer industry that successful small companies are swallowed up by larger ones. So it came as no surprise to me that Xcelsius, which we covered as a very intriguing option for dramatizing Excel spreadsheets with interactive dashboards, was bought by Business Objects.

At around the same time a more robust enterprise version of the product came out, which we described in an update in its ability to connect to databases.

More recently we used the product to create an interactive chart in PowerPoint to demonstrate creative visuals.

As much as I like Xcelsius, there were two problems with the program — first it was quite complex to "get" — figuring out exactly how to make the Excel data come alive took a bit of noodling.

Second, if you didn't get the how’s and why’s of the program, it was kind of an expensive proposition, even at the introductory level.

The good news this week is that a new completely free version of Xcelsius is available for download. The reason I am writing about it again is to show you that it also has an extensive help and tutorial area to take you through the process of creating effective dashboards.

CX Now! is the free version and not surprisingly it is a "light" version of the full program — download it at this link. (Also make sure and download the two template examples to play with).

We wanted to take a look at its tutorial capabilities and how it stacks up to the full version. If you look at the interface it is familiar with two additions — a task bar that has a full complement of tutorial links for fast learning and, not surprisingly, a link to upgrade to the full (not free) version.

Figure 1144

Still, for dashboard wanna-bes this is a great opportunity to try the full product without an expiration date — let's face it 30 days is not enough time to really master a demo version.

I decided to refresh my own knowledge of the product by using the tutorial directly in the task bar. What is very cool is that in addition to installing the program, Xcelsius also put three tutorial sample spreadsheets in a small samples folder in the Program Files, so I was ready to start.

I loaded the first spreadsheet into Xcelsius, and following the step by step instructions in the task pane, chose a bar chart to connect to the data.

Figure 1145

By following along I was able to create my first interactive slider scenario in minutes — and preview it in the program's Flash/Shockwave preview window.

By connecting a slider component to the bar chart based on the spreadsheet, we can see interactively how much total sales of desktops will be affected by a slight percentage change in sales.

We are also getting a hands on feel for how Xcelsius works and getting ready for more robust scenarios.

A quick tip: as you're working with the tutorials, you may lose the task pane with the step by step instructions. Click on the little Wizard icon on the toolbar and you're right back in the tutorial.

Also on the toolbar, notice that there are icons to send the file directly (as Shockwave) to PowerPoint (a slide), Outlook (via email), PDF (if a writer is installed) and MS Word.

If you download the tutorials on the web site, they come with the excel spreadsheets, the Xcelsius files and the finished shockwave files. In addition, the spreadsheets have color coding to make grasping the concepts and following those tutorials easier. The instructions are right in the spreadsheet as well.

Figure 1146

Since making interactive dashboards is such a great way to create more eye catching and visually interesting presentations it's great that this free tool has also included such excellent learning components.

Now there is really no excuse for not putting a shockwave enabled interactive dashboard into your PowerPoint slides, or posting it on a web page.

Incidentally if you're a real dashboard maven, you might want to check out the $10,000 contest for interactive dashboards from Xcelsius.

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