82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Should be titled "Excel Charts and Pivot Tables", September 2, 2010
This review is from: Excel Dashboards and Reports (Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf) (Paperback)
I picked up this book because I'm building a client dashboard for my company. I was looking for techniques specific to building dashboards in Excel. What I got was a lot of information on building charts and pivot tables.
I'm pulling data directly from a SQL Server database into an Excel workbook that is our client dashboard, so I'm not exactly a novice user. As advanced as I am at data extraction and automation, I could use some direction on properly setting up a dashboard in Excel. What are some ways of laying out data in a visually pleasing way? How many tabs of data is too many? What are some pleasing color schemes? I've run into "hiccups" while protecting the tab names, so are there better techniques for that? What's a good way to present a user with a "preferences" tab? Basically, I'm looking for as many tips and tricks as I can find for creating a dashboard in Excel.
Unfortunately, and in spite of the title, the book doesn't spend a lot of time talking about dashboard design.
There are books out there specializing in dashboards. I was hoping for something like that with Excel in mind. I didn't even mind it rehashing basic Excel knowledge if it showed it in a dashboard-specific way. Instead, only 41 pages talk about dashboards, and much of that is beginner stuff. What is a dashboard? Creating a dashboard data model. Stripping unnecessary elements out of charts. For beginners, this is good stuff. For an advanced user, there are still some good bits. The map on page 22 showing the most important parts of the screen is informative, for instance. The "data model" section was excellent vindication that I had blundered into doing it the right way.
Out of those 41 pages, 9 pages were spent on the VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, CHOOSE, and SUMPRODUCT functions. Another 3 dealt with cell ranges and tables. Some of the other information was of dubious worth. The suggestion that you strip unneeded elements out of charts was good advice, but the example chart -- with the grid lines removed, and thus a disturbing lack of scale -- argued against that advice.
The next 128 pages are an introduction to creating charts in Excel, with nothing more than lip service paid to the "dashboard" concept. Another 57 pages are spent on creating pivot tables and pivot charts. Then, 13 pages discuss Excel 2010 "sparklines" and 18 pages on miscellaneous charting techniques. Pages 279 to 336 are supposedly "dashboard" specific, but cover things like entering drop down lists, adding trend lines, setting axis starting values, etc.
It's all interesting information that a novice would welcome, and it would do wonders to spruce up any chart. It's just not in any way specific to a dashboard. It looks a lot like a general Excel charting and pivot table book that was repackaged with a hot buzzword to generate sales.
The book's title has the word "reports" in it. Apparently by "reports" it really means pivot tables. There are no real "reporting" techniques covered. My own favorite technique -- setting all of a worksheet's columns to be very narrow and then merging cells to position the information exactly where I want it -- isn't mentioned. Neither is dynamically changing print headings and print areas in macros.
The macro section is very, very basic. It is little more than "here's how you use the macro recorder". There isn't even any mention of how you can password your macro projects so that no one can see your code (which is important if you're using macros to pull data from an outside source via SQL Server). There is some small consideration given to passwording the workbook in general, and pulling data from Microsoft Access, but it's all very rudimentary. This book will leave you copying and pasting if the data comes from, say, a SQL server table.
The pages are not exactly dense. There is lots of white space, lots of table and screen capture examples, and each chapter starts with 2 to 3 "dead" pages due to layout. (There are 17 chapters.) It's easy to read and find information, with a thorough index.
This is a worthwhile book if you know only the basics of Excel and you want to take the leap into charts and pivot tables. For that reason, and for a few of the interesting bits of information I gleaned (like the data model and the new sparkline feature in Excel 2010) I give this book 3 stars. I think I'm being generous.
Only in the smallest of companies would someone who found this book eye opening be handed a dashboard project. If you're in such a predicament, I recommend picking up Stephen Few's "Information Dashboard Design" and getting a book dedicated to Excel charts instead of purchasing this.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Guidance for Business Analysts, September 10, 2010
This review is from: Excel Dashboards and Reports (Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf) (Paperback)
This book is an excellent resource for business analysts who are tasked with creating reports in Excel. The most eye-opening chapters are the ones on effective data modeling and creating interactive reporting without VBA. Within a few days, I've gone from 5 spreadsheets with 15 charts each, to one clean view with an interactive chart that can be dynamically changed using form controls. No VBA!
I agree with the previous reviewer that some of the stuff here is basic. But there are definitely some gems even in the basic chapters. If you want a book purely on High Science Dashboarding, then this not the book for you.
I was looking for Excel techniques that will help make my reports more automated and streamlined - misson accomplished with this book.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Excel user should be without this: it tells how to report data in a useful, enhanced fashion!, November 13, 2010
This review is from: Excel Dashboards and Reports (Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf) (Paperback)
Microsoft Excel Dashboards & Reports packs in a fine survey of spreadsheets and how to use them. Dashboards provide at-a-glance views on business processes, organizing data into fine structures, and Excel is an ideal choice for creating these Dashboards - but how? This book covers all the technical knowledge involved in changing data to reporting tables perfect for high-impact reports. No Excel user should be without this: it tells how to report data in a useful, enhanced fashion!
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