Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies [Paperback]

Michael Alexander (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471779105 | ISBN-13: 978-0471779100 | Publication Date: April 24, 2006 | Edition: 1

• As the fastest growing dashboarding solution on the market, Xcelsius is an intuitive stand-alone Windows application that enables Excel users to transform the contents of an ordinary Excel spreadsheet into an engaging, interactive Flash-based dashboard
• Offers step-by-step instruction on the wide array of functionality that Xcelsius has to offer so that readers can complete mini-dashboards of increasing complexity with each chapter
• Addresses how to prepare Excel spreadsheets for use with Xcelsius dashboards and then use basic components of Xcelsius (charts, buttons, labels)
• Shows ways to add advanced functionality to dashboards (gauges, sliders, maps) and create interactive business calculators with Xcelsius
• Discusses integrating Xcelsius reports into PowerPoint slides, Web pages, and e-mail

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Build cool interactive dashboards to explain your data

Create charts, maps, and gauges, slice data into various views, and more — easily!

Crystal Xcelsius is like a rocket-booster that lets you turn your Excel spreadsheets into professional-looking dashboards, scorecards, "what if" visualizations, even highly polished PowerPoint presentations. And here's the know-how you need to use it! Build simple to sophisticated dashboards, add buttons, refresh your data, create a visual model with style, and much more.

Discover how to

• Create basic dashboards with gauges and sliders
• Build in interactivity
• Use color to explain data
• Add menus and selectors
• Work with dynamic visibility
• Format and distribute your dashboards

About the Author

Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) with over 14 years of experience developing office solutions and consulting. He currently works as a Senior Program Manager for EDS.

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471779105
• ISBN-13: 978-0471779100
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and author of 8 books on advanced business analysis with Microsoft Access and Excel. He has more than 14 years experience consulting and developing Office solutions. Michael has been named a Microsoft MVP for his ongoing contributions to the Excel community.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's the model, stupid (not the visualization), August 13, 2007

By 

A Person - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies (Paperback)

While Xcelsius is a great tool, the model is the substance behind the image. This software makes presentation simple and powerful (and has a bit of the 'wow' factor, especially when sending interactive .pdfs) but the real issue is building the underlying model.

In chapter 15, the 'real world examples,' none of the Excel models are shown. A big omission. It would have been so easy to add the 15 excel files to the 'Bonus material.'

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Fancier Presentations from Excel, July 12, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies (Paperback)

The 'For Dummies' books have done it again. This is a complete and thourough introduction to using Xcelsius to give you an entirely new set of sophisticated ways to show Excel data in graphical form.

Xcelsius specializes in what they call dashboards. That is, the data is diaplayed in the form of gauges (speedometer, gas gauge, they even have what they call 'alerts' that are close to idiot lights). You can also design inputs in the form of sliders, buttons, again, not unlike an automobile dashboard.

In addition to dashboards there are other features such a maps, enhanced charts, pictures -- all kinds of things to ehnance the visual experience of a presentation.

Technically, Xcelsius compiles your visual model into a Flash (.swf) file and creates an HTML file that calls the .swf file. The HTML file is of course presented using a web browser, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Outlook, or Plumtree.

As in most 'For Dummies' books, this one starts slow, builds on the base, and by the end of the book you have a pretty good idea about the whole thing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Xcelsius for Dummies, September 7, 2006

By 

Gary Dent (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies (Paperback)

After being assigned to produce Dashboards for our company, I tried to read and understand the manual. I saw the Crystal Xcelsius for Dummies and thought I would give it a try. This book had me up and running in 2 days and I actually understood "why" things were happening. This is a great book for beginners and has a hands on approach to the learning, which I find extremely helpful. This book is for anyone who wants to learn Crystal Xcelsius in a hurry.