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how to use custom objects/pictures instead of standard traffic lights

H

Hellomoto

New Member
I thought I read this in one of the chandoo blogs but could not find it anymore. the best search term is eluding me. This is what my memory tells me: (sorry for not being very clear, my memory is shotty)


for dashboards, instead of using the traffic lights found in excel 2007 conditional formatting feature, it is possible to create and use custom pictures/objects. Example, if sales is up, display picture of smiley; if sales is down display picture of sinking ship.


Was inspired by the KPI graphics from the Excel based Sales Dashboard option 24, title of blog Sales Dashboards – Visualizing Sales Data – 32 Dashboard Examples & Implementations. I think the objects were created using the camera tool and the colors of the circles do not change. I want to do something similar, but I want the color to change based on the status. To keep this short, I recall that doing so may be possible. Is it?


Any help in unraveling this broken memory is appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hellomoto

Have a read of http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/05/19/dynamic-charts-in-excel/


It will show you how to do what you want

Instead of using 3 Charts you can have 3 Colored objects

Or 20 Colored objects, its up to you


You don't have to use a drop down either, you can base the selection on a cell's value
 
Hi Hui, How is the filter actually applied. I get the error message: The command could not be completed by using the range specified. Select a single cell within the range and try the command again.


I created two objects (using insert>shapes), placed each in its own cell.


Tried different things like selecting the cell above the range, etc. Referring to the link you suggested, what are the steps to completing step 4?


I got the filter command to work with a range of numbers, but not with objects or pictures.
 
I figured out why it didn't work. I didn't enter any text in the cells. After typing something in the cells, the filter command worked. It can't handle blank cells.


Two issues with this technique:


1: pictures don't work. to use pictures, create an autoshape and fill with picture

2: the filter command must stay on. Like an on/off switch. The command is not embedded, like condition formatting or validating. Hence, can't have more than one filter working in the same sheet.


I only played with this for a few minutes today. So I may be wrong with those two thoughts.
 
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