Clearly and Simply

  • Charts in Excel Table Tooltips

    How to display a Chart in the Tooltips on Microsoft Excel Tables visualizing the selected value within the context of the data distribution

    Charts in Excel Table TooltipsThe recent post Tooltips on Microsoft Excel Tables showed a way of how to create tooltips in Microsoft Excel tables displaying additional information on the selected cell / value and some aggregated measures for the data in the active column, like sum, average, standard deviation and others.

    If you are particularly interested in setting the selected value into the context of the distribution of the entire data, you may want to have a visualization in your tooltips. In other words a chart as a tooltip on a numeric data table. Sounds like turning the whole tooltip idea and concept upside down, doesn’t it? However, from time to time this can be a great alternative for adding more analytical power to your Excel tables.

    Today’s post provides a short tutorial how to create a tooltip displaying a chart. As usual, including the Microsoft Excel workbook for free download.

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  • Tooltips on Microsoft Excel Tables

    How to display Tooltips on Microsoft Excel Tables including additional information on the selected cell and aggregation results for the entire column

    Microsoft Excel Table TooltipsTooltips are a very helpful feature when exploring and investigating data. On charts and on plain data tables. When referring to tooltips, I am talking about additional details on the data currently selected or hovered over using the mouse. Tooltips could include other dimensions and measures, calculations or aggregated information like totals or averages.

    Tableau Software provides very powerful and easy to use tooltips. If you are working with Tableau, I once again recommend having a look at Andy Cotgreave’s great Tableau tooltip articles on the Data Studio (Tableau Tooltips: Conditional Formatting or Charts inside a tooltip? Yes, we can.). Thanks again for sharing, Andy.

    Compared to Tableau, Microsoft Excel’s tooltips functionality is next to nothing. We already had a post showing how to improve tooltips on Excel charts: Better Chart Tooltips with Microsoft Excel 2010.

    However, tooltips can be very helpful in plain data tables as well. Sure, Excel automatically displays some calculated aggregations of the selected range in the status bar. Yet, this is not enough. Your eyes always have to jump down to the status bar to see the information, the displayed quick calculations are limited and inflexible and you always have to select the range first. If you are working with larger data tables, you may wish for tooltips providing additional information on the selected value (like the percentage of total, the rank, etc.) and on aggregations across the entire column (like sum, average, etc.).

    Today’s post provides two slightly different approaches how to create better tooltips on Microsoft Excel tables. As usual including the Excel workbooks for free download.

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  • Tableau Quick Tip #3 – Keyboard Shortcuts

    Increase your productivity with a comprehensive list of all Tableau keyboard shortcuts

    © Rainer Sturm / pixelio.deDragging and dropping fields to the different shelves is the heart of user interaction in Tableau Software. In general, Tableau is predominantly designed for using the mouse.

    However, like with any other software application, using keyboard shortcuts can be a big boost for your productivity in Tableau as well. Especially for functions you are using very often, knowing and taking advantage of the keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time.

    But which keyboard shortcuts are available in Tableau?

    Well, the Tableau Manual has 5 pages with the most important shortcuts. Aside from the fact that there are some more, flipping through 5 pages during your work with Tableau is inconvenient. The better option would be a small print-out, only displaying those shortcuts you like most and/or you want to learn by heart.

    Today’s short article provides an Excel workbook, including a comprehensive list of all Tableau shortcuts and a feature to design and create such a small display of your favorite shortcuts. You could easily print this and position it somewhere you can have half an eye on while working with Tableau. Of course, today’s quick tip includes the Excel workbook for free download.

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  • Tableau Quick Tip #2 – Custom Number Formats

    How to use Tableau Software’s Custom Number Formats

    Intro Custom Number FormatsTableau provides a variety of built-in number and date formats. There are the standard formats “numbers”, “currency”, “scientific” and “percentage”. For scientific and percentage you can only change the decimal places, but for numbers and currencies you can also define the way negative values are displayed, the displayed units, the thousand separator and you can add a prefix and/or suffix to the number. For date fields, Tableau offers 17 different standard formats.

    Tableau’s built-in number and date formats will meet most of your requirements. From time to time, however, you need something different. E.g. you want to see “Quarter” instead of “Q” on your date axis, you want to display numbers in hundreds or you need to add some text to the numbers displayed. This is where Tableau’s Custom Number Formats come into play. Today’s post provides some links to learn the principles and the syntax, includes some examples and discusses Tableau’s limitations compared to Microsoft Excel.

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  • An Underrated Chart Type: The Band Chart

    Why band charts should be used more often and how to create them with Microsoft Excel and Tableau Software

    Band Chart IntroBand chart, range chart, high-low line chart, corridor chart. I don’t know whether there is a standard term for this type of charts, so let me call it a band chart hereafter.

    What is a band chart?

    Basically a band chart is a standard line chart enhanced with a shaded area displaying the upper and lower boundaries of groups of data (e.g. the range between the minimum and the maximum of all members of the category). Band charts are very often supplemented by another line showing the arithmetic mean (the average).

    What is the big whoop?

    Band charts provide by far more context to your visualization and more insight into your data. Especially if you have to explore unknown data sets. They are easy to implement, very intuitive, very effective and do not require one pixel more of your dashboard real estate than a standard single line chart.

    This being said, I have always been wondering why I do not see these charts more often in my professional environment. Are people underrating the benefits of band charts or am I overrating them?

    Today’s article discusses the benefits and the use cases of band charts and provides tutorials of how-to implement this type of chart with Microsoft Excel and Tableau Software. As ever, including the Excel workbooks for free download and the Tableau visualization for direct access via Tableau Public.

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