Customer Reviews

Excel 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great book to have as a resource for not only some of the new features of Excel 2007, but also as a primer to what a data warehouse is and what it means to build one. Of course, the latter is something that can be learned in depth in many other texts, but for a user of Excel, it makes for a good launching point to other more complex concepts of data warehouses and BI (Business Intelligence).

There are many great examples that can simply make spreadsheets look and work better regardless of whether you are building a dashboard or not.

I've been working with a web analytics tool to track our corporate web site performance. I found the available reports to be limiting, but recently learned that I can import the raw data into Excel. However, I needed help with what to do once I had the raw data! I want to disseminate this information throughout my organization, but don't want maintenance of the dashboard to be a full-time job. But I really wanted to be able to display trending.... that's what my users care about. So I ordered this book. I use Excel, but not extensively. I knew how to do pivot tables and charts, but had never used functions such as VLOOKUP. This book gave me the advice I needed to set up a useful, visually appealing, and maintainable dashboard. It was especially helpful in getting past my unfamiliarity with the 2007 version of Excel. Now I'm looking for a more advanced Excel book. I highly recommend this book as a first step into the world of dashboarding. If you get this book, don't forget to download the examples - it helps a lot to see how the functions interact.

This book is very easy to follow, takes you painlessly and logically step-by-step through the dashboard development process and using Excel to get you there. My organization was so happy to see a single dashboard that I developed using this book that used to take 6-8 Powerpoint slides to present.

I've always considered myself a knowledgeable Excel user, but this book taught me a lot of new tricks and improved my knowledge of Excel charting. I'm new to the whole dashboarding concept but Dashboards and Reports for Dummies laid everything out in easy-to-understand chapters that slowly build upon each other. While this book won't make me a dashboards expert it will make it possible for me to present concise and useful information to my management team. Highly recommended for beginners and experts alike.

I purchased this book 2 weeks ago and found it provided a very good introduction to the concepts of dashboards.

The use of the 3-layer approach (Data, Analysis & Presentation) is akin to any business intelligence development.

The author introduces solid BI concepts without the technical jargon and complexity.

The spreadsheet downloads from the website is very handy to help follow the creation and modifications of reports and dashboards.

The pivot table aspect was also well covered. After this book I'll be purchasing a more advanced one on pivot tables.

Michael Alexander, in Excel 2007 Dashboard & Reports for Dummies, did a great job of demystifying using Excel as a dashboard reporting tool. His explanation of how to create and when to use pivot tables, specialized charting techniques, automation, and tricks make creating a powerful and effective dashboard easier.

Top and Bottom views of data in Pivot Tables, Comparative Trending, Bullet Graphs, Sparklines, and Performance against Targets are all concepts that he fully explains to the reader. He also places emphasis on proper definition of the data elements required to produce a dashboard and what to include and more specifically what not to include in the dashboard.

I recommend Excel 2007 Dashboard & Reports for Dummies to all levels of Excel users.

As most "For Dummies" books this does what it advertises. There are times I wish it was a bit different in layout but for the most part it helped me with my presentations. Some of the limitations are my own brain accepting that Excel may not do what I want the way I want. Ha. If you are new to dashboards and reporting this is a very handy book and easier to use than the others I purchased. It is the one I go back to the most and the one that is borrowed by others a lot.

This book is awesome. Even you are really dummy you will be able to create your own dashboards. The end of the sleepless nights. My boss was shocked and everybody asked me which course did i attend. Of course course for dummies. I dont know very well English but it was very easy to understand. Thanks to Michael A. fot this amazing book and thanks to Amazon.com for quick delivery.

I did not know how to create a dashboard in Excel, after read this great book I can do it in a few steps

Michael Alexander has done a great job of explaining some complex Excel concepts in plain English and with some humor. I considered myself an intermediate user but had not really worked in Pivot Tables and all that go with them. This book has been a revelation and is one I'm reading front to back. The practice files that can be downloaded are great aids (although finding them on the web site is a pain).
The first couple of chapters should not be missed: storyboarding your data to make the best use of it in a dashboard and understanding different levels of analysis are critical prior to jumping into the rest of the book.
This is a book I highly recommend.