Clearly and Simply

Week in, week out, Tableau

Week numbers with Tableau

The previous post discussed different methods of calculating week numbers and their effects on analysis and visualizations of data on a weekly basis. The post was focused on using Microsoft Excel.

However, the challenge caused by different week numbering methods is not restricted to Microsoft Excel. I guess every data analysis and visualization software faces this problem.

And so does my favorite: Tableau. There is no built-in way to switch between different week numbering methods in Tableau. But Tableau has the flexibility for an easy-to-use solution. This post provides all information of how to use ISO 8601 week numbers in Tableau, including a Tableau packaged workbook for free download.

Week in, week out, Microsoft Excel

Week numbers with Microsoft Excel

For analyzing and visualizing data on a timeline we are often consolidating the data on a monthly basis. Especially for monitoring and reporting, however, you need a higher level of detail, i.e. you will have to analyze and visualize your data by weeks.

Unlike the months of the year, the definition of a week is not fully standardized. There are different approaches of how to calculate the numbers of the weeks. The results of the data analysis and the according visualizations depend on the week numbering method you are using.

This post describes 3 different methods of numbering weeks and shows their impact on the resulting data visualization.

Lithuania at a glance

A Data Analysis and Dashboard Showcase with Microsoft Excel

This post is about a showcase. Don’t expect too much. I will not provide a detailed how-to tutorial. All you can learn from this post is that you should not toss Excel as a matter of principle, when you have to create Business Intelligence tools and dashboards. Agreed, Excel has its limitations especially with regards to the access to larger external databases. And Excel’s chart engine has some limitations as well. Nevertheless Excel provides the flexibility to create compelling and professional dashboards.

Recently a Lithuanian company invited me to conduct a training to their marketing department. The focus of this training shall be on how to create Excel models including dashboards and visualizations made to stick. I haven’t done trainings for quite a while, but I do remember that the perfect start for a training is a demonstration of what it will be about and what the participants will be able to do afterwards. Therefore I created a showcase based on the Lithuanian Census 2001.

Approach with caution

Multi-select regions on an interactive Excel Dashboard

Have you ever built a data-analysis model in Microsoft Excel for a database containing a geographical dimension like state, county, ZIP-code areas, sales region, etc.? If so you probably wanted to integrate a user-friendly control feature on your dashboard that enables the user not only to select one region, but to filter the data by any combination of regions. E.g. show the total revenues for the sales regions West and Central.

You need a multi-select filter control. This post shows different options of how to do this and includes the example files for free download.