Clearly and Simply

  • Showcase for Table Slicers on Excel Dashboards

    A more practical Showcase for using Table Slicers as interactive Filters on an Excel Dashboard including additional features

    The recent post Filter Excel Dashboards with Table Slicers was leading with the following screenshot, showing this prototype of a Customer Care Analysis dashboard:

    Showcase Table Slicers on Excel DashboardsFor instructional purposes, however, the article described the how-to on the basis of a way simpler dashboard than that.

    In the past few days I received a couple of messages from my few, but faithful readers, asking if I could publish this more complex dashboard, too.

    No sweat, here it is:

    Download Showcase Slicers on Excel Dashboards (zipped Excel workbook, 5.1MB)

    If you download the workbook, please be informed that

    • all data in this showcase is randomly and mindlessly made up and serves only for the demonstration of the techniques. The distribution of the call volumes e.g. over countries or hours of the day is totally pointless
    • this is a prototype, which I once developed for a potential client to demonstrate possible views and interactive features on a call center dashboard. This is by no means a consistent and story-telling dashboard. It is a collection of ideas. No more, no less.

    That being said, it does include a few interesting techniques. The filtering by table slicers, of course, but also

    • the option to sort table views directly on the dashboard using radio buttons above the column headers (call volume by brand and country)
    • the option to let the user decide which measure and target shall be shown on a chart (Average Handling Time or Waiting Time)
    • dynamically changing flag icons inside the table view “Call Volume by Country”

    Agreed, nothing really new under the sun and you probably have seen most of this already. But still, it may be interesting to see all these features combined with the table slicers.

    And for the records: all this is done without VBA. Just good old Microsoft Excel.

    Stay tuned.

  • Weighted Route Maps in Excel

    How to visualize round trips on a Route Map in Excel, including an indication of the quantities transported between the cities

    Weighted Route MapThe recent post series “Geographical Flow Maps in Excel” (part 1, part 2, part 3) described how to visualize flows from one selected city to several target locations, showing the connections between origin and targets and indicating the flow quantity by the thickness of the lines.

    My highly esteemed colleague Joachim Schirra, outstanding SAP and Business Intelligence expert, read the articles and came up with the following question in a comment on LinkedIn:

    “Would it be possible to show a flow with branches, junctions and return flows, too?”

    Although this is a great idea, it sounds easier than it is. Truth be told, I do not have a solution. At least not yet.

    However, Joachim’s comment made me think. What can easily be achieved is the visualization of a weighted Route Map (i.e. a round trip, see image above).

    Today’s post describes how to change and enhance the Geographical Flow Map approach to get to such a Route Map. As always, the post includes the Excel workbook for free download.

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  • Geographical Flow Maps in Excel (Part 3 of 3)

    Final part of a 3 parts series on how to create a Geographical Flow Map in Microsoft Excel

    Flow and Choropleth Map in ExcelThis is the third and final part of our series on how to create a Geographical Flow Map in Microsoft Excel and it will be a relatively short article (at least by my standards).

    Why? Because the technique of how to visualize flows on a map in Excel was already covered in part 1  and part 2. Today’s post will simply enhance that visualization with a technique which has been covered in many blog posts here throughout the last 10 years: adding a so called Choropleth or Filled Map. Check out the category Choropleth Maps to see what has already been published about this topic on this blog.

    To cut a long story short, this article will only briefly explain the idea and how to configure the colors used on the Flow and the Choropleth Map. As usual, the example Excel workbook is provided for free download.

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  • Geographical Flow Maps in Excel (Part 2 of 3)

    Part 2 of a 3 parts series on how to create a Geographical Flow Map in Microsoft Excel

    Flow Map IntroWhilst the workbook and explanations provided in the first post laid the foundation for a Geographical Flow Map in Excel, the visualization was very limited in its usability. It only visualized the flow or movement from one city to several endpoints, but not any measure or value which is moved like shipped quantities, USD, persons, or something similar.

    Today’s post removes this limitation by visualizing a measure by the thickness of the lines between the cities: the thicker the line, the larger the measure and vice versa.

    As always, the post comes with the example Excel workbook for free download.

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  • Geographical Flow Maps in Excel (Part 1 of 3)

    Part 1 of a 3 parts series on how to create a Geographical Flow Map in Microsoft Excel

    Geographical Flow Maps in Excel - IntroA Geographical Flow Map visualizes the physical route or flow of material, people, money, information, etc. from a starting point to several endpoints.

    Flow Maps do certainly not belong to the visualization types in daily use. But it is definitely helpful to have such a template in your toolbox in case you may need it one day.

    Today’s article is the first of a 3 post series about how to create Geographical Flow Maps in Excel.

    This first part lays the foundation with a workbook setting up the data, the calculations and the chart by using standard Excel features only, i.e. no VBA. As always, all three posts will come with the according Excel workbook for free download.

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