Excel® 2007 Dashboards & Reports FOR DUMmIES by Michael Alexander ‰ Excel® 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission Microsoft and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002 For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books Library of Congress Control Number: 2008921207 ISBN: 978-0-470-22814-2 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 About the Author Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) with over 14 years experience consulting and developing office solutions He is the author/co-author of several books on business analysis using Microsoft Excel and Access Michael is one of 96 Microsoft Excel MVPs worldwide who has been recognized for his contributions to the Excel community He is also the principal player behind DataPigTechnologies.com, a site that offers video tutorials to beginning and intermediate Excel and Access users He currently lives in Frisco, Texas where he works as a Senior Program Manager for a top technology firm Michael can be contacted at mike@datapig technologies.com Dedication For my family Author’s Acknowledgments My deepest thanks to Greg Croy, Christopher Morris, Loren Abdulezer and all the professionals at Wiley who have helped bring this book to fruition And a special thank you to my beautiful wife Mary who will open this book long enough to read the dedication and acknowledgments Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/ Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Composition Services Senior Project Editor: Christopher Morris Project Coordinator: Katie Key Copy Editor: Jennifer Riggs Layout and Graphics: Stacie Brooks, Reuben W Davis, Alissa D Ellet, Joyce Haughey, Christine Williams Technical Editor: Loren Abdulezer Proofreader: Joni Heredia Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Executive Editor: Gregory S Croy Assistant Producer: Kit Malone Media Development Coordinator: Jenny Swisher Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Sr Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Index highlighting in charts, 190–192 incorporating into dashboards, 178–179 interactive, creating using pivot tables, 179–182 Top/Bottom Rules predefined scenario, conditional formatting, 113–116 trend lines, when to avoid showing, 283, 284 trending chart types for, 153–155 comparative, 161–167 directional, 171–172 dos and don’ts, 153–161 highlighting specific time periods, 167–171 inserting dividing lines, 169–170 label management, 159–161 overview, 153 representing forecasts in components, 170–171 secondary axis, 164–167 side-by-side time comparisons, 161–163 stacked time comparisons, 163–164 starting vertical chart axis at zero, 155–157 when to use logarithmic scale, 157–159 trends, defined, 153 trusted locations, macros and, 222–223 Tufte, Edward, 174, 283 •U• Update Links command, 275 user requirements, gathering, 12–13 •V• Value Field Settings dialog box, 64–66, 80–83 values area, pivot tables, 52–53 VAR function, 66 VARP function, 66 vertical axis in pivot charts, 105–107 as primary axis, 165 starting at zero in trending charts, 155–157 views, pivot tables creating, 74–83 highlighting in charts, 190–192 incorporating into dashboards, 178–179 interactive, 179–182 month-over-month variance, 82–83 percent distribution, 80–81 top and bottom, 74–77 YTD totals, 81–82 visualization, formula-driven creating with Wingdings, 148–149 in-cell charting, 145–147 overview, 144 VLOOKUP function applying formulas in data models, 35–36 Col_index_num argument, 35 defined, 33–34 HLOOKUP function, compared with, 37 Lookup_value argument, 34 overview, 34–35 Range_lookup argument, 35 syntax, 34–35 Table_array argument, 34–35 •W• Wiley Web site, Wingdings, 148 wizards Data Connection Wizard, 255–257 MS Query wizard, 258–263 workbooks, Excel impact of pivot cache on memory usage and file size, 61 macro for ease of navigating, 223–224 macro switchboard example, 223–224 protecting overview, 266–268 passwords, 273 structure, 272–273 worksheets, 270–271 separate worksheets for data, analysis, and presentation, 25–26 worksheets, Excel problem of too much data, 30–31 protection 317 318 Excel 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies applying, 270–271 for passwords, 270–271 removing, 271–272 ways to, 268–272 reports as data models, 27–28 separate ones for data, analysis, and presentation, 25–26 single-tab limitations, 31–32 sorting data, 288 unlocking editable ranges, 269–270 •X• x-axis, in pivot charts, 105–107 xlsm file extension, 223 xlsx file extension, 223 XPS (XML Paper Specification) files, 278 XY scatter plot charts defined, 88 illustrated, 89 preparing data for, 91 •Y• y-axis in pivot charts, 105–107 as primary axis, 165 starting at zero in trending charts, 155–157 year aggregating pivot table data by, 78–80 year to date (YTD) totals, pivot table view, 81–82 YTD (year to date) totals, pivot table view, 81–82 ... worksheets for data, analysis, and presentation, 25–26 worksheets, Excel problem of too much data, 30–31 protection 317 318 Excel 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies applying, 270–271 for passwords,... Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies. com, and related trade dress... books on business analysis using Microsoft Excel and Access Michael is one of 96 Microsoft Excel MVPs worldwide who has been recognized for his contributions to the Excel community He is also the