Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I like to pretend that I'm a young man, but then I remember that one of my first jobs was typing up orders on a..." (more)
Key Phrases: final dashboard, xlf file, interactive dashboard, Crystal Xcelsius, Display Status Key, Value Alerts (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

• 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

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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471779105
• ISBN-13: 978-0471779100
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 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.com Sales Rank: #73,304 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, January 9, 2007

By	Carlos Sierra - See all my reviews

I liked this book a lot. I enjoyed the writing and even tough it was a Dummies book, it contained all the information that I needed to be able to get started mastering Crystal Xcelsius.

1 of 1 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)

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.