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To begin our work, launch Xcelsius in the conventional manner by double-clicking on the
desktop icon or navigating through the Windows program list. After you have opened Xcelsius,
you will see a Getting-Started panel on the right side of the Xcelsius canvas. This panel has
many helpful tips that you might want to try later (its under the Help menu on the toolbar), but
for now close the panel by clicking the blue X. Your computer screen should look something
like this:
Can you make sense of the spreadsheet now? Probably. Still, youll have to admit, its not easy
to visualize the impact of your changes, especially given the spreadsheets size. Were about to
make that task a whole lot simpler. To do that, lets return to the Xcelsius work area. Now, we
are ready to import the Interactive Dashboard Tutorial Spreadsheet into Xcelsius. To do so, click
the Excel icon
follows:
in the Xcelsius upper tool bar. The Import Model Dialog Box will appear, as
constructed to dynamically populate a single row with the various data records (via Excels builtin vertical lookup function), setting up the chart will be very straightforward.
Double-click the chart in order to open its Properties panel. Adjacent to both the Data Range
and the Series: X Values input boxes, there are selector icons . (In order to activate the X
Values selector icon, you must first click the Radio Button in front of the word Series and then
click the Add button.) Click the Series: X Values selector icon and the embedded
spreadsheet opens in your work area. Use your mouse to select cells F8 through Q8 in the
spreadsheet (the variable data series for January through December), and then click OK. You
will now notice that the Xcelsius column chart displays 12 columns of data, as pictured below in
Figure QS3.6:
Now, double-click the title label to open its Properties panel (if a panel is already open, look at
its title bar to make sure it is the Properties panel associated with the label and not with the
chart). Click the Radio Button next to Link to Cell and use the selector icon to choose cell C11
in the Excel spreadsheetthe variable chart title which is automatically generated by the
spreadsheet. A chart title will appear on the screen: Home Loans Anaheim 2003. It may
look small and poorly positioned, but dont worrywe will fix that later. Note that we will not
need to add a subtitle to the chart, since all the relevant information is contained in the title.
Hence, you can now close the Properties panel. Once you do, your screen should look like this:
Row 8. And because the column chart on the Xcelsius canvas is linked to the relevant data in
that row, the chart will change as we choose different branches from the List Box.
, and you will see a display
Lets see it in action. Click the Flash Preview button
area with a List Box and a chart. Not very excitingyet. Now click the different bank branches in
the List Box and see what happens. The chart automatically populates with new data. Not only
that, but the loan center location in the title changes as well. Pretty cool, isnt it?
Well, it gets even cooler. Click the Flash Preview button and return to the work area. Weve
added one variablethe bank branchto the presentation, but we have two more to deal with.
What should be our second variable? It could be either loan type or year, depending upon
whether we are more interested in product lines or bank branch performance overall. Well
assume were most concerned about product line performance, and focus first on loan type.
As with bank branch selection, there are a number of different tools we could use for selecting
loan typeincluding the tools mentioned earlier. However, because there are only three loan
types and because we want some visual distinction with the list of branches, we will use a suite
of radio buttons.
To insert a Radio Button selector into the presentation, click the Radio Button icon in the
Selectors folder of the Components panel (assuming that the Selectors folder is open; if it
isnt, make it so). Drag the icon somewhere to the right of the bank branch List Box and to the
left of the chart, preferably near the top. When you release the mouse button, a Radio Button
selector appears. Voila!
Your screen should now look like this:
The labels in the Radio Button selector arent the ones we want, of course, so double-click the
Radio Button to open its Properties panel. Next to the Labels input box, we see a selector icon
and a button with three dots
. We could try to locate the labels in the spreadsheet, but
this time it will be easier just to input them by hand. Click the button with the three dots, and a 3
x 2 chart opens. The items in the left column are fixed, but if you click on the items in the right
column, you will see you can modify them. Click on each and type in the desired loan types:
Home Loans, Refinancing, and Other Consumer (make sure to erase the existing text).
Were finished adding labels, so click OK. The appropriate labels should appear within the
Radio Button selector (you may need to use the control handles on the Radio Button selector to
expand the selector horizontally so that you can see the complete labels).
Your screen should now look like this:
Figure QS3.10 The Radio Button Selector with the Correct Labels
Next, we will associate the Radio Button selector with the correct data source. To do that,
double-click the Radio Button selector to open its Properties panel. As before, the Insert
Option input box should default to Position (if not, use the drop-down list to select it). If you
recall our initial examination of the Excel spreadsheet, you will remember that we could
manually change the loan type by changing the number in cell T18. Again, thats just what
Xcelsius will do.
In the Properties panel, click the selector icon next to the Insert In input box and use your
cursor to choose cell T18 in the embedded Excel spreadsheet, then click OK. The Radio Button
selector will dynamically insert the loan type number into cell T18 of the spreadsheet. Now, we
can change the information in Row 8 according to not only bank branch, but loan type as well.
Lets see how it works. Click the Flash Preview button. In the finished presentation, as you
choose different bank branches, the same thing happens as before: the chart data changes, as
does the chart title. Now, for any given bank branch, click different loan types in the Radio
Button selector. The chart data changes againand so does the chart titlereflecting not just
Xcelsius Getting-Started Tutorial: Interactive Dashboard. Page 11
the bank branch location, but the loan type. You can choose any different combination of bank
branch and loan type and generate a unique chart. Amazing, isnt it? When youre finished
trying it out, click the Flash Preview button and return to the Xcelsius work area.
Now, for the final input variable, were going to throw you overboard without a life raft. Well, not
really. Youve already learned to swim in the Xcelsius sea pretty well. Adding the final
variablethe yearto the model involves the same steps as we just undertook for the loan
type: (1) point-and-click to add a Radio Button selector to the canvas, below the Loan Type
Radio Button selector; (2) type in the labels (2003, 2004, 2005) for the new selector; and (3) link
the selector to cell T8 in the Excel spreadsheet. Well leave you on your own to find the
locations for the relevant items in the Properties panel, but if you get confused, just review the
process we followed for the loan types.
When youre finished, your screen should look like this:
Figure QS3.11 Adding a Radio Button Selector for the Fiscal Year
Want to check out your handiwork? Click the Flash Preview button and watch in what we hope
will be utter amazement as you modify the chart data and title in three dimensions by choosing
any combination of bank branch, loan type, and year.
When you are finished, click the Flash Preview button and return to the Xcelsius work area.
STEP 4: ADDING A TABLE TO THE PRESENTATION
The dynamic chart is a great tool for quickly visualizing the performance of the various bank
branches according to loan type and year. But you might want to make it possible for users to
see the actual data values as well. You can accomplish this by including a numerical table in the
presentation.
The process of adding a Table is similar to that of adding a List Box or Radio Button. Within the
Components panel, click the plus sign next to the Selectors folder to open it (if it is not already
open). Next, click the Table icon and drag it to a position beneath the chart. When you release
the mouse button, a Table icon appears on the canvas.
Double-click the Table icon on the canvas in order to open its Properties panel. Looking at
Figure QS3.1, its clear that we want to create a 4 x 6 chart. If you click the selector icon under
the Display Data input box and examine the embedded Excel spreadsheet, you will find that
such a table has already been created for you in cells F12:K15. Select those cells and click OK,
and a new chart is displayed on the canvas. To our great delight, the Table icon has morphed
into the 4 x 6 table that we wanted, with all the data in the right place. (You may have to move
and shrink the table a bit to see all of it.)
Your screen should look like this:
however, that is some cases you may have to check the Use Custom Color box in order to
activate the color selection palette.
Next, lets adjust the charts title. Click the title in order to open its Properties panel, and then on
the Appearance tab. In the Text area, center the title by selecting Center in the Alignment
drop-down, and change the font size to an appropriate number and the typeface to bold. Add a
title to the overall dashboard, something like: XYZ Bank Performance, by Branch: 2003 2005
by dragging another text label to the canvas. Finally, move the elements on the screen around a
bit until theyre in a pleasing format.
Your screen should now look something like this: