Over the last few years, there has been much debate about the merits and perils of Microsoft Ribbon UI in Excel 2007. Personally I think ribbon is a good way to explore an application. I have gotten used to it since I tested excel 2007 for first time. Now, during the rare occasions I work on excel 2003, I feel strange navigating through a bunch of menus to do even the simplest things (like aligning cell content vertically).
As more and more people are migrating to excel 2007 (and eventually to excel 2010) it is very important to master the ribbon UI to be productive with spreadsheets.
So to make you an excel guru, I am releasing a free learning guide to excel 2007 ribbon interface.
The learning guide has 10 pages. It explains 7 ribbons and has 3 more pages of ribbon tips. The ribbon tabs explained are,
- Home ribbon tab
- Insert ribbon tab
- Page Layout ribbon tab
- Formulas ribbon tab
- Data ribbon tab
- View ribbon tab
- Review ribbon tab
See the sample page for insert tab (click on it to see at higher resolution)
Download the free Excel 2007 learning guide now
Click here to download the Using Excel 2007 Ribbon – Learning Guide.
What is the catch?
There is no catch, except that, I am in a generous and becoming-a-daddy mood.
But if you must catch, just go ahead and sign-up for our e-mail news letter. It is free, awesome and packed with super-cool tips. And as if there is not enough free, you will also get a 25 page free e-book on using excel when you sign-up. It has 95 really fun and productive excel & charting tips.
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9 Responses to “Show forecast values in a different color with this simple trick [charting]”
While this works in a pinch, it clearly "lightens" the colors of the entire chart. Depending on where you use this, it will be blatantly obvious that you don't know what you are doing and present a poor looking graph.
Why not separate the data into different segments when charting and have as many colors as you have data points? You might have to create a new legend and/or repeat the chart in "invisible ink", but it would be cleaner and more consistent when new or updated data becomes available.
While I think I agree that doing it "properly" via a second series is preferable, I don't necessarily agree that making the entirety of the "future" (data, gridlines, and even the axis) semi-transparent is "poor looking". I think it could be seen as adding more emphasis to the "future-ness" of the forecast data.
In short, it's another tool for the toolbox, even if it's never needed.
Simply and clever 🙂
Quick & effective, cool. thanks.
I always use the dummy series.
Nice little trick, thanks very much!
Two sets of data better. Control is much better.
You can use the same chart next month to see what is actual and what is forecast.
To use this trick, I think grid lines has to be removed, that will make the graphic much more sharp.
to be honest, i dont understand why there is needed to do this way... in this case horizontal lines will be pale as well. then why a just can't change the color of the line partly???
Great tutorial. Thanks for the tutorial!