Most formatting in XLCubed can be handled though the formatting options available on the right-click menu, and today’s blog will cover some of the common use cases.
Grid Formatting 101
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Dashboard Designs: Dynamic Cards
//Dashboard cards are a great way to group related data and make key information more accessible. The flexibility of Excel and XLCubed means there are a number of ways you might choose the incorporate a card-based design into your dashboards. In this blog we will consider one way to do this using XLCubed dashboard sheets and paged viewports.
Combining Sets
//XLCubed has lots of options for Ranking, Sorting and Filtering (And Searching. And Grouping. And, and and … 😉)
As well as all of these, one often overlooked aspect of the Advanced member selector is the member combination mode.
This enables lots of interesting scenarios, especially as you can run more advanced selections on the results of these.
Propagate across Sheets
//Propagate across Sheets
Today’s blog will run through Propagate across Sheets – it’s an XLCubed feature that’s been around for some time but is definitely one of our hidden gems!
Propagate across Sheets is some great functionality that allows users to quickly replicate a report onto additional sheets within the same workbook or a new workbook.
Workbook Aspects – Same Report, Different View
//A common scenario in business reporting is for different users to want reports to open with ‘their’ view on the data. So for a particular Store or business unit.
Many back-ends already support setting Default Members for different users and groups, for example Analysis Services allows this, but as XLCubed can connect to an increasing number of back-ends we can’t rely on this and sometimes a single report user may have different combinations of views on data (for example, a set of store/product group combinations)
Version 9.2 of XLCubed has added Workbook Aspects to help with this, allowing users to store their own slicer selections and quickly switch between those and also to set the default for when the report is loaded.
With this feature you can define the aspects at a report level, shared by all users, and also allow users to define their own private aspects.
Continue reading “Workbook Aspects – Same Report, Different View”
Data Mashups 101
//In an ideal world for report designers, all the data required for a report is available in one data source, and the structure and hierarchies perfectly match the reporting needs. Sadly, the world isn’t always ideal (just ask Theresa May…).
We often see scenarios where users are reporting numerical data from Analysis Services but want to include descriptive or textual information held elsewhere. People have approached this in different ways, but XLCubed’s mashup capability can make it a much more streamlined and maintainable process.
Christmas Dashboard
//Ever wondered how Santa Claus keeps track of the North Pole’s toy production all year round? He uses XLCubed of course! Continue reading “Christmas Dashboard”
Dashboard Designs: Responsive Navigation Bars
//Many would believe that Excel is a static environment and not suited for making responsive mobile reports. XLCubed users know better. With XLCubed’s Dashboard Designer, it is possible to create dashboards that are not only interactive and data-connected, but also responsive to fit any device.
Continue reading “Dashboard Designs: Responsive Navigation Bars”
Visual Analytics for Excel
//One of the biggest improvements in 9.2 is undoubtedly in the area of interactive charting. We’ve hugely extended the capabilities of Small Multiples through a new charting engine which brings rich interactive Visual Analytics to Excel (and web, and mobile…).
The ‘Small Multiple’ concept of many charts with a shared axis is very powerful, but in some cases users just need a single interactive chart and 9.2 caters for both scenarios. We have added zoom controls, sliders and a play axis to help users quickly focus in on and further explore specific areas of interest within the chart.
How’d you like that….displayed!
//Today’s blog will show you a really quick and easy way to format your grid to show different display units.
This approach is ideal for dynamic Grids where the size of the values can vary considerably based on the selected filters, or where the user has drilled down to lower levels in the data. For example, if country level numbers are in hundreds of millions, but customer level numbers are in hundreds or thousands, it can be useful to have the ability to quickly change the display units.