Xcelsius allows you to create interactive dashboards for your personal use or your organization. You can create the dashboards from Microsoft Excel or a live data source, and export your dashboard to a another format – Microsoft Office, Flash (SWF) files, Adobe PDF, and Adobe Air.
Xcelsius Engage 2008
The dashboard I am currently working on uses Excel for formatting, XML for data collection and PowerPoint for display. There are limitations to Xcelsius (ex: arrays, indirect, etc.) but you can always find a workaround. For instance, I ran into an issue with Xcelsius not allowing arrays for a sumif so my workaround was to have the data come through aggregated already allowing me to remove the sumifs as a whole.
Xcelsius does state that it can handle SUMIF’s, VLOOKUPs, Index, etc. but the more formulas you have in your dashboard the slower it becomes.
Below are some great links to help you with your dashboard creation:
- Crystal Xcelsius Dashboarding – Mike Alexander’s blog that has links to his videos on DataPig Technologies.
- David Taylor’s Business Intelligence Blog – Nice blogs on Crystal Xcelsius, Crystal Reports and much more.
- DataPig Technologies – has videos, articles, tips & much more.
- Everything Xcelsius – Awesome site that has videos, articles, tips & much more.
- Interactive Data Visualization – This is the blog of Ryan Goodman.
- Jorge Camos – not only has dashboard tutorials but also has tips on how to make a dashboard in Excel with or without vba.
- MyXcelsius.com – Great site for Xcelsius & Crystal Reports. Has tips, tricks and more.
- Sparklines for Excel – Nice addons for Excel.
- The Xcelsius Journal – Has some very good tutorials.
- Xcelsius-Insight – Best Practices, Tricks & Workarounds.
- Xcelsius & Me – Has some really nice samples.
- Sas-Vba-Excel-Xcelsius-Flex – Nice tricks & dashboards.
Fellow Tweeters:
Forums:
Recommended Books:
Do you know of any other great sites/links that should be added to the list? Comment below & help others find great resources for their Xcelsius journey.
Check back often as I will be adding links as I find them.
