In this and next 3 posts, we will learn how to make a Dynamic Dashboard using Microsoft Excel.

At the end of this tutorial, you will learn how easy it is to set up a dynamic dashboard using excel formulas and simple VBA macros.

[Click here for large version of the image]

Introduction:

The dashboard also demonstrates the standard approach I use in all of my models which is to incorporate three key sheets in addition to the data and analysis tabs.

These are:

• Home page
• Inputs (or drivers)
• Helpsheet

The dynamic dashboard can be downloaded here [mirror, ZIP Version]

The dashboard file works in Excel 2007+. Pls. enable macros to get it work.

The plan is to break this dashboard tutorial down into four parts over the next four weeks. If further topics fall out as a result of discussions either Chandoo or I will pick them up and if necessary post further parts.

• Part 1: Introduction & overview
• Part 2: Dynamic Charts
• Part 3: VBA behind the Dynamic Dashboard a simple example
• Part 4: Pulling it all together

I would like to take a quick opportunity to give credit for some of the elements of functionality in the model:

• Boxcharts – Chandoo [Link]
• Scrolling report – Chandoo [Link]
• Competitor analysis – Chandoo [Link]
• Use of camera tool – Chandoo [Link]
• In cell microcharts – Chandoo [Link]
• Helpsheet – John Walkenbach

Okay so lets get started with an overview:

What is the objective of the report?

The Dynamic Dashboard is intended to provide pertinent summary information to aid management decision making. Combining a high level of flexibility within each report and then allowing the user to choose which reports to include and where to position them allows an enormous amount of flexibility over the message to be communicated.

What does this Dynamic Dashboard do?

The dynamic dashboard allows the user to select a report from the range of reports within the model and decide where to position it on the page. The user can select “hide” to hide a report that they do not want to see or select “view” to preview it prior to choosing its position.

• Clicking on either the hyperlink name or the report image will take you to the report.
• Each report is highly flexible allowing the user to cut the data in many ways to show management the most pertinent information.

Overview of Dashboard Tabs:

Home Page

I always include a homepage in my models and often set an auto_open routine to select this as the first page seen on opening. The Home page is designed to present the contents of the model to the user and provide links to each page for easy navigation.

The Dynamic Dashboard

This is the main tab for pulling together the dashboard and will be covered in parts 3 and 4.

Inputs

This is the page for all validation lists and drivers.

Help Sheet

Once again a sheet that is in all of my models. This user form based help sheet provides the user with a quick help function and complements the accompanying user notes. I find it helpful to lay it out in tab order.

This is how the Help user form looks once opened. The user can either choose the topic from the dropdown or by clicking next.

Chart 1 and 2 : Flexible pie charts

Dynamic pie charts with the option to select the KPI, period and product/salesperson to be analyzed. These are covered in part 2.

Chart 3 & 4: Flexible line charts

Dynamic line charts with the option to select the KPI, period and product/salesperson to be analyzed. These are also covered in part 2.

Chart 5: Box Chart

Details on how to create these box charts.

Chart 6: Scrolling Report of KPIs

Chandoo’s blog on how to create this scrolling report can be found here. Micro charts which is of my favorite blogs from Chandoo are covered here.

Chart 7: Scrolling Comparison Chart

Details on how to create this scrolling chart.

Chart 8 : Executive Summary

A simple executive summary. Please see Chandoo’s article on a twitter board for an alternative view.

So that was an overview of the model and its main tabs.

What Next?

Next week we will look at  Part 2 of this series and learn how to construct dynamic charts.

Download the complete dashboard

Go ahead and download the dashboard excel file. The dynamic dashboard can be downloaded here [mirror, ZIP Version]

It works on Excel 2007 and above. You need to enable macros and links to make it work.

Added by PHD:

Myles has taken various important concepts like Microcharts, form controls, macros, camera snapshot, formulas etc and combined all these to create a truly outstanding dashboard. I am truly honored to feature his ideas and implementation here on PHD. I have learned several valuable tricks while exploring his dashboard. I am sure you would too.

If you like this tutorial please say thanks to Myles.

Related Material & Resources

• Excel Dashboards – Tutorials & Templates Section of PHD
• 6 Part Tutorial on Making KPI Dashboards in Excel
• Recommended Product: Jorge Camoes’ Dashboard Training Kit

This is a guest post by Myles Arnott from Clarity Consultancy Services – UK.

The spreadcheats series has been wildly successful. I am compiling all this useful information and articles in to one big post so that anyone can follow the links and become good in Excel. Read on,

[Note: This is not for beginners. If you know what a formula is, you would enjoy this 31 articles]

1: Insert Line Breaks in a Cell

Press ALT+Enter keys in a cell to make a new line inside the cell. [Read this]

2: Select all cells in a range

Use these keyboard shortcuts to select all the cells in a range or group. You can find 90 more shortcuts on that page. [Read this]

3: Using Mouse in Excel

Many of us know at few keyboard shortcuts. But what about mouse short-cuts? Read this post to learn interesting mouse shortcuts that can boost your productivity. [Read this]

4: Using Mouse in Excel – Part 2

In the second part of Mouse shortcuts, we explore double click tricks in Excel. [Read this]

5: Save time by using chart templates

In this spreadcheat, learn how to make your own chart templates and re-use them to save time. [Read this]

6: Make ToC (Table of Contents) in Excel – and other tricks

We all run in to large excel workbooks one time or other. Read this post to find out how you can manage when you have a large file. [Read this]

7: How to print spreadsheets one just one page?

Use the little trick in print settings to print any worksheet on just one page. [Read this]

8: Write better formulas by knowing the difference between relative and absolute references

Quick, what is the difference between A1 and $A$1? If you said 2 dollars, you are the right person to read this article. Learning the differences and usages of various reference types in Excel is important if you want to write better and simpler formulas. [Read this]

9: Remove duplicate items using formulas

Learn how to remove duplicates, identify unique values etc. using formulas in this article. [Read this]

10: Introduction to VLOOKUP Formula (and MATCH, OFFSET Formulas)

VLOOKUP remains one of the most important and very useful formulas in Excel. Learn how to write vlookup formulas by reading this article. [Read this]

11: Introduction to 3D References in Excel (a tutorial on Employee Satisfaction Surveys in Excel)

In this tutorial, we will explore a feature called 3D References in Excel and build an employee satisfaction survey form in Excel. [Read this]

12: Introduction to SUMPRODUCT formula

Learn how to use SUMPRODUCT to find sum of values that meet more than one condition. [Read this]

13: Introduction to ROWS and COLUMNS formulas

One of my recent favorites, ROWS() formula is very useful to generate sequential numbers in Excel. [Read this]

14: Calculate Moving Average in Excel

Use excel formulas and relative references to calculate moving average from your data. [Read this]

15: Introduction to FREQUENCY formula

We use FREQUENCY formula in Excel to generate statistical distribution of a set of values in this example. [Read this]

16: How to understand and fix excel formula errors

If you are ever perplexed by #N/A, #NAME! and said #$#@ to excel, this is the article for you. Read it to learn what these errors actually mean and how to fix them. [Read this]

17: Quick tip to Debug Complex Excel Formulas

Use Function key F9 to debug lengthy and complex excel formulas. Select a portion of the formula and press F9 to instantly evaluate that portion and see the result. Read this article to find out how to use this trick. [Read this]

18: Use Find / Replace tool to change formulas

Learn how to use Find / Replace tool in Excel to quickly edit formulas and change them. [Read this]

19: Introduction to COUNTIF and SUMIF Formulas

COUNTIF and SUMIF are very simple yet very powerful formula tools for anyone using Excel. In this article, explore these formulas and learn to use them. [Read this]

20: Introduction to Array Formulas in Excel

Array formula is like a mega formula that would work on an entire range of cells and return another range of cells. They are useful for scenarios where the output we need is not one value but a set of values. In this introductory example, learn how to write your first array formula. [Read this]

21: Introduction to Excel Conditional Formatting

Excel conditional formatting is your way of telling excel to highlight / change formatting of cells that meet certain criteria. This is a good way to draw attention to few points from a large table. Learn how to use Excel CF in this introductory article. [Read this]

22: Introduction to Excel Camera Tool

In this article, learn about Excel Camera (or Snapshot) tool which is useful for making a live snapshot of a range of cells. [Read this]

23: Introduction to Excel Pivot Tables

Pivot tables are a powerful way to analyze and report your data. In this introductory post, you will find all the basics of pivot tables and learn some tricks. [Read this]

24: Introduction to Excel Goal Seek

Goal Seek is opposite of formulas. In formulas we tell excel a bunch of values and excel finds the result. In goal seek, we tell excel what the result should and excel tells us what kind of parameters should be given. This is useful to find, for eg. Your retirement nest egg value … [Read this]

25: Introduction to Combination Charts in Excel

Learn how to combine 2 different chart types in to one chart in this article. [Read this]

26: Make a Dynamic / Interactive Chart using Data Filters

Do you know that we can use data filters to filter charts as well as data? Well, in this article, you can learn a powerful yet simple trick to make a dynamic chart in Excel using data filters alone. [Read this]

27: Make a Dynamic / Interactive Chart using INDEX Formula

Learn how to set up a dynamic or interactive chart using INDEX formula and Camera tool in Excel. [Read this]

28: Make Collapsible Charts using Group – Outline Tools

We can collapse / expand charts using the group and outline tools in Excel. Learn how to set up such a collapsible chart in Excel. [Read this]

29: Showing Chart Labels in Different Colors – Charting Tricks

Learn how to use custom cell formatting codes to show chart labels in different colors based on a criteria. [Read this]

30: Advanced Data Validation Tricks in Excel – Part 1

In part 1 of excel data validation tricks, we will learn how to use excel formulas to control the way data validation works. [Read this]

31: Advanced Data Validation Tricks in Excel – Part 2

In part 2 of data validation tricks, we will learn how to prevent duplicate data entry using data validation formulas. [Read this]

Happy learning

Introducing Flag Project

The flag project is very simple. Just take your country flag and make it  using only Excel Charts.

See the example Indian Flag I have constructed:

As you can guess, Indian Flag is a bar chart with 3 bars and a 24 sliced pie chart in the middle.

(There is a minor error in the chart, the spokes of the Ashoka Chakra – the wheel in the middle are not lines, but more complex. But from Flag Project perspective, that is kind of OK. More on Indian flag symbols & design.)

Here is a de-construction of the Indian flag Excel Chart:

[click here to download the Indian Flag - Excel Chart source file]

Now it is your turn,

Go ahead and make your own country’s flag in Excel using only excel charts. You can learn some powerful charting concepts while trying this. Plus, it is fun.

Follow these simple rules,

• Don’t violate your country’s flag code. Make sure you adhere to color codes, dimensions, symbol codes of your flag when making it.
• Upload your flag as an image to a free image hosting site like flickr or skydrive (upload source excel files too if possible).
• Share the url (s) of your flag image with all of us using comments.
• Feel free to make your city / town / state / book club flags as well. Share them using comments.

All the best.

PS: Due to a small visa emergency I am going to India for few weeks. The internet access back home is a bit rustic. So I will not be able to write as often as I would like to.

PPS: For inspiration and ideas on excel charts visit Excel Combo Charts | Excel Charts sections of PHD & Peltier’s Excel Charts Pages.

I work at an insurance company in Slovenia. At the beginning of each year we have a conversation with our superiors to review our work in the past year and to set new goals (main activities) that we’re gonna work on throughout the year. To keep track of these activities I took the liberty of modifying Jennie’s A New Year Resolutions Template that Kicks Ass and created a more “dynamic” template.

He sent me this:

I immediately liked this implementation, for various reasons. This example shows how we can combine various powerful features in MS Excel to create something truly unique and outstanding. It uses,

• Conditional formatting to highlight rows when the activity is 100% complete. [learn how to]
• Formulas to show check boxes when the activity is done. [learn how to]
• A thermometer chart to show the progress against the target. [learn how to]
• An elegant date formula to show how many days are remaining to finish the goals. [learn how to]
• And scrollbar form controls to adjust the % completion values. [learn how to]

Download this tracker Excel File

Click here to download the example file and play with it.

Thank you Marko

Very elegant, very slick. Good work Marko. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Share your Excel Success with PHD

I like to learn how you use excel creatively to solve problems at work. Send me examples, workbooks or ideas. I am always looking for new ways to use excel and your contributions will help us all. Email your stuff to me at chandoo.d @ gmail.com.

But what has all this got to do with Excel? Well, some of you know that I am fan of Sachin. Last time he became the highest scorer in test cricket, we celebrated that with a dashboard of test cricket statistics. Similarly, now too, I have prepared an info-graphic poster on Sachin showcasing his achievements. See it below,

[if the below image is kind of messed up, click here to see it in full]

Behind the poster:

I have made this poster in Excel 2010 (it has sparklines, that is why). The data is from Cricinfo’s statsguru page.

Download the original poster excel file (you need Excel 2007 or above to play with this).

Also, if you want to see the entire poster as one image click here.

Congratulate Sachin

Sachin is a hero in my world. He has been inspiring me to do better for the last 20 years. I am sure some of you are inspired by his passion, commitment and excellence in the Sport of Cricket. Join me and congratulate him.

Previous Visualization Projects

From time to time, I indulge in some fun visualization projects where we push the limits of Excel to do something awesome. Some of the earlier attempts are,

Flu trends chart in Excel | History of Excel – a timeline | Visualizing Olympic Medals since 1900.

When we have multiple charts, ensuring consistent color schemes, fonts etc. is very important. Often we individually format the charts because they have different chart types or source data. But instead, you can just use paste special to copy and paste chart formatting (formatting of labels, grid line settings, axis settings, colors, legends, titles) from one chart to another. See this small tutorial.

• To do this, Select the source chart, press Copy (or CTRL+C), now select the destination chart, go to Paste Special (or press ALT+ES). From the dialog select “Formats”.

More quick tips, chart formatting suggestions.

I know there are a ton of cool, extremely useful features in excel. But it also comes with a few really un-necessary features.

For me, the most useless feature seems to be a 3D surface chart. I have tried to figure why this is used, but no success. It seems like a chart that I would never use.

The other feature that I almost never used is “spreadsheet background images”.

What about you? what do you think is the most useless feature in Excel?

PS: Did I say I love excel, oh it is such a darling.

PPS: You have a fun weekend

But when you have large project plans, gantt charts like above can get pretty intense and hard to read. So a better approach is to group various tasks in project plan – like this:

In this article, we will learn how you can make such a grouping in a regular gantt chart.

For this tutorial, we will choose a familiar project – Project Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich. (If you dont know what a PBJ is, you should find-out, prepare and eat one before reading any further. I am serious…)

Step 1: Make the regular project plan gantt chart in the following format

We will not talk about making a regular gantt chart. Here is an excellent tutorial on making excel gantt charts (and one more).

Once you are done, the chart should look like this:

Step 2: Add a new column and define groups of activities

This is very simple. Just add a new column (preferably to the left of activities) and define groups of project activities there. Like this,

Step 3: Select the entire gantt chart and add “subtotals”

To do this, just go to Data Ribbon (or menu) and select “Subtotals”.

Once you are inside the subtotals dialog, select “Start” and “End” columns to add subtotals.

In order to get the correct grouping in the gantt chart, we need minimum of start and maximum of end in each group. But this is not possible with subtotals dialog. So we just select “minimum” as the subtotal type.

Once you press OK, Excel will insert new rows and add SUBTOTAL formulas automatically.

Step 4: Change the SUBTOTAL formulas

Since both Start and End subtotals are pointing to minimum, we need to change the formulas for End so that they show Maximum. Just do that by editing the subtotal formulas manually and changing total type to “4″ (MAX) for column End.

While we are at it, you can also change the labels from “Min of <group>” to “<group>”.

Step 5: Modify the conditional formatting so that groups are shown in a different color

In the conditional formatting add another condition (like when activity is blank) so that we can show those rows in a different color. [here are some tutorials on conditional formatting]

Now our Project Plan for Peanut butter sandwich is ready with groups.

Download the Gantt chart template with grouped activities

Download a copy of this example – Excel 2007 | Excel 2003 [mirror]

Get a copy of my project management template set – It has 7 gantt chart templates and 17 other project management templates.

Do you group tasks in your project plans ?

Grouping activities can be very useful to monitor project progress. In large projects usually there will be hundreds of activities. It can be a nightmare to know which ones are delayed, which ones need attention. By grouping you can present overall picture while allowing drill-down to items that need attention.

Do you group tasks in your plans? What is your experience like?

More resources on Project Management using Excel:

I suggest reading my 7 part series on project management using excel. Starting with Excel Gantt Charts to Project Dashboards.

Also, read the excel conditional formatting tips article and primer on excel subtotal formula.

That is right, January 2010 is so far the best month since I started blogging. We have broken all sorts of previous records on content, conversations, connections, traffic and revenue.

In January, we had 20 posts and 425 comments (highest ever). There were 117 thousand visitors reading 353 thousand pages. Our RSS subscriber base grew to 7790 (it was 2068 an year ago). January is the best month in terms of revenue too. We sold highest number of Project Management Templates and Formula E-books. The site even made more $s on Google Ads than it ever did.

Personally too, the month has been terrific. Jo and I celebrated our third marriage anniversary (we also finished 8 years since we started dating). I got promoted at work and Microsoft renewed my MVP award for one more year. Finally, I got my act together and started working on Excel School.

Awesome is the feeling that comes to my mind. I hope you started the new year with flying colors too.

The website success is all due to YOU. You have been kind enough to comment, e-mail, encourage, ask, share and learn. Without you, this milestone means very little to me. Thank you. Thank you very much.

To celebrate this little achievement, I have indulged in frivolous chart porn and made a small poster. See it below:

(I removed all numbers from revenue section. Lets just say, PHD has been keeping both my mind and pocket happy. )

Bonus Charting Tip:

Of course, we dont want to waste a post with some frivolous navel gazing. So, let me share a cool charting trick with you. You can highlight Maximum value in a chart (like above) by,

• First format the entire series in a dull color (like above). To do this, just select the series, change the “fill color”
• Now, click on the series, and while series is selected, just click on the maximum item once again. Now, the maximum item alone will be selected.
• Just change the fill color of this item to some strong, contrasting color (like above).
• That is all… (learn more: using color, charting principles).

PS: Excel School registration opens on Monday. There will be a post announcing it in the next few hours.

PPS: If you are saying Excel What?!?, you should watch this.

First let me show you what I am able to do in Excel:

(compare this with actual chart on Google)

How I made the flu-trends chart in excel?

1. Data, Data, Data: Data plays an important role in complex charts like these. The source data is thankfully available for download from Google.  Flu incidence data is available by week (Sunday to Saturday) for every week since 28th Sep, 2003. For each week the data if given for all regions in various columns. But I was not able to use the data “as-is” to construct this chart. I had to massage and rearrange it a bit.
2. The main issues is how flu season is classified (it starts on July and ends in June) and how the data is (we got weekly flu incident data, starting from Sunday to Saturday). The main issue here is each year, the weeks start on different dates. For eg. first Sunday in 2010 was on 3rd Jan where as in 2009 it was on 4th Jan. I tried using WEEKNUM() formula (examples), but it didn’t work well with the flu season (Jul to Jun). So I did some basic date math and ended up mapping weeks uniformly across years.
3. The next issue is taking one big table of data with dates in rows and regions in columns and transform it to weeks in rows, years and columns and actual flu data for the selected region in the cells.
4. Then I set up 2 cells, one where user would specify “region” and other where a comparison “year” can be selected. I have used data validation to control the valid inputs.
5. I used the MATCH, INDEX formulas to fetch corresponding weekly values for all years for selected region. Thanks to MATCH, INDEX and HLOOKUP formulas, this is not such a big task either. And if the optional comparison year is specified, we repeat that years values in another column. Otherwise that column is NA().
6. Using these columns, I made a line chart. Then I cleaned up the chart and formatted the 2009-2010 series in thick blue and rest all in thin light blues. The optional comparison series was colored in red (for contrast). [related: line chart examples]
7. The only remaining piece is to show the heat map of flu intensities below the chart. For this I have used the very useful 3 color scale conditional formatting setting in Excel 2007. (of course, I had to setup some extra calculations so that the intensities are normalized across the region / years and change when user selects a new region, but you already guessed it.)
   
8. I choose to drop the colorful legend as it adds little value.
9. The rest is some formatting and presentation.

What I learned from this experience?

• When I looked at Google’s chart, I doubted if it can be created in Excel. But I was wrong. It can be done in excel, and it takes no more than 2 hours.
• Data and structure of it play extremely important role in any visualization.We should understand the data and know how to arrange / transform / massage it, to make better charts.
• Date formulas are a flu in the nose.
• Excel 2007 conditional formatting is just awesome. [more examples]
• INDEX, MATCH, LOOKUP formulas are very powerful. I *respect* them. [here is a tutorial]

Download flu trends chart and play with it

Download the file (Excel 2007 only). The file is locked, but there is no password. Play with it and tell me if you like it.

Do you like this chart?

Have you done something similar in Excel? What was your experience like? Do you like this chart? How would you improve / change it?

More visualizations using Excel:

Olympic Medals by Country | Survey Results Dashboard | Test Cricket Statistics | Dynamic Charts

PS: After a looong time this post had many “I”s

PPS: Have a good weekend.