0

Form controls are great for reporting information about groups of items, like a list of programs or accounts. They are often used on Excel dashboards and reports that demand interactive capabilities. One such type of capability provides the user with a list of items to choose from. When the user makes a selection, a macro is executed that populates a table holding referenced values. Those values are linked to a series of form controls on the frontend. This interactivity is displayed below:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

There is a final step, which I haven't included. The user would make changes to the project under the Options table. They would press a "Save" button and their changes would be copied from the Linked Values table back onto the backend data in the column corresponding to the selected project using VBA.

The No-VBA way

There's nothing wrong with this method in and of itself, but I want to propose a method that requires no VBA. The advantage of this new method is that it links directly to the data itself and bypasses the need for the Linked Values table. We can do this by allowing the form controls to take advantage of dynamic references.

Typically, form controls can only do direct, absolute references. You cannot, for example, use VLOOKUP or INDEX within the source field of a form control. However, you can use a named ranges.

Let's do it!

First, we give that 'index' field above a named. How about selection? Next, we create four named ranges to correspond to the form control checkboxes. Stage_1 to Stage_4 are those new named ranges.

As you can see from the picture, I use the fourth row to connect to checkbox Stage 4 and the selection value to inform Excel to pull from the fourth column in the backend data (which is Project 4, if you recall).

Finally, I can simply link these named ranges to their associated checkboxes:

Using this method, changes to the checkbox automatically change the backend data. There is no intermediate table required -- like the Linked Values table above -- to interface between the frontend and the backend.


That's all for now - have a happy and health holiday season!

Update 25 December:
Make sure to see the download file - Direct Links.xlsm.

Author: Unknown Labels: Interactive Dashboards, No VBA, Spreadsheet Tricks

46

I've been on a real rollover kick lately. I'm really trying to figure out if it can be useful. Earlier today I started making a Periodic Table of Elements using Excel. I employed the rollover technique to allow the user to gain information about an element simply by rolling over a cell. Well, for some reason, I couldn't stop there. So what was meant to be a small project ballooned into something larger. Unfortunately, my sticking to good coding practice didn't keep up with craving to do more. So what I present to you below isn't really a polished product. If you poke through the named ranges and the rollover indexes, you'll probably see that I add and subtract one to them somewhat randomly (a cheap trick - this is  due to my trying to reconcile the table copied from Wikipedia with my indices).

As you can see below, you can not only gain information about an element but you can also toggle on and off different element groupings.



If you want to "crack" the file, the first thing you'll need to do is reset the ScrollArea (Click on a cell. Go to the Developer tab, click Properties. Delete the reference in the ScrollArea box.). Then just unhide everything.

Good luck.
Periodic Table.xlsm

Update -
Reader Dario found an error in the spreadsheet (see the comments) - this is the result of some carelessness and cheap tricks on my part. An updated version will be released tonight. In the meantime however, you can still poke around the file :).

Another Update -
I've since fixed the bug described in the reader comments. If you find anything else, let me know!

Author: Unknown Labels: Advanced Excel, Data Visualizations, Dynamic Charts, Formulas, Interactive Dashboards, Rollovers, Spreadsheet Tricks, VBA

2

Before we start, you might have noticed some renovations on this blog. Yeah, it was time for a change. I'm working this template out, so sorry if some of the formats seem off. Also, I have started a new facebook page. I'll be keeping it updated with stories from my favorite blogs. Also, you can post questions and stuff for me (or others) to take a crack at. Plus, you'll see that I'm just a normal average guy. So if you have a facebook, you should join. You really don't have a good excuse why not! :)

DOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT!
Option Explicit VBA | Promote Your Page Too


***

In early last year, this humble blog had very little traffic. All of that changed in April of last year when I posted an exciting discovery: the Rollover technique. This technique was written about by the wonderful Purna of Chandoo.org. At the time, I was super excited about all of the possibilities of this technique. Now, just about a year later, I'm unsure whether anyone (besides me) has really ever used it. I even tried to incorporate it into my last project, but I found my clients were all too used to clicking on a cell rather than rolling over one. In the end I removed the rollover and replaced it with a click. Perhaps the rollover technique is destined to be a cool gimmick and not much more.

But I'm not giving up. Reader Bert van Zandbergen has been sending me many fine spreadsheets featuring this technique. His enthusiasm is encouraging. So I give you a rollover you can use for your Gantt Charts!


Download the fun, here:
Gantt Chart Surprise.xlsm

To see my intermediate table, scroll to the right of the dashboard. Sometime in the short future, I'll post a how to make the highlighted cell stand out with a border. In the mean time, remember to go to Facebook and like this page. Seriously, what are you waiting for? 

Author: Unknown Labels: Advanced Excel, Dashboards, Interactive Dashboards, VBA

0

Reader, Bert van Zandbergen, from Beekbergen, The Netherlands (Holland) sent me his own cool creation based on the Rollover technique I created. I asked if I could post his work to this blog to which he graciously agreed.

Below is his write up. Some of the Excel functions below are in Dutch (which I think is really cool). If you're confused, download the file first - your version of Excel will show the functions in your language of choice. And, of course, if this technique is new to you, read the the tutorial on how to do Excel rollovers. 

***

Dynamic Funnel Chart

by

Bert van Zandbergen

The Netherlands

Based on this file: 

presentatietechniek-25-pipeline-2012.xlsm

Figure 1

Start with the 4 columns. The dummy had to be 100 or more for space to unfilled dummy bars. Delete the lines. Now you can change the value from “100” to “1”. Further information is visible in Figure 1.

Hyperlink:
Read also the information and explanation on the website of Chandoo.org
http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/07/20/interactive-dashboard-using-hyperlinks/ 

Figure 2

Place a hyperlinks in the cells of the hotspot – see above. 

Figure 3
Formula: Define the hotspot with the name: “ valSelOption” 

Figure 4

Go to VBA and insert a module. For more information about the instruction – see on this website, the Chandoo website and the module above. 

Figure 5 -- Chart with hotspot

The hotspot is based on 10 columns combined with 42 rows. – see figure 5/6. The hotspots are linked by hyperlinks with corresponding cells in columns AI:AR.  For a special effect and an easy crossover the values are placed in a diagonal figure

See: Figure 5/6  

Figure 5 -- The "hotspot"

Above the hotspots and the linked cells. Special formed to make an easy crossover.

***

A big thank you to Bert - hopefully there will be more contributions in the future!

Do you have something interesting to share? Send me an email or drop me a line on LinkedIn. 

Author: Unknown Labels: Advanced Excel, Excel Development, Excel Tricks, Interactive Dashboards, Spreadsheet Tricks, VBA

362

"Rollover B8 OV1" (like Rollover Beethoven...? get it?)

Update 17 July 2011: This blog entry was featured in Chandoo's latest post. So if you're coming here from his site -- welcome!

original post:

This post was inspired by Chandoo's post on hyperlinks in Excel. If you haven't checked his website out yet - you should. It's excellent.

In this post, I suggest a method for creating a "Rollover" effect for your mouse on an Excel spreadsheet. Rollover techniques (also called "Mouseovers") are useful to (1) display quick information to the user; (2) to execute a function when a user puts their mouse over a specific region; and (3) to make neat graphical effects.

For item 1, my technique isn't really necessary. If you want to display brief information to the user when he or she rolls over a cell, the best way to do this is to insert a comment.

But comments are pretty limited. You can only write so much information in a comment before it becomes too cluttered to be useful. Moreover, comments are static. What if you want the information concerning the "target" cell (that is, the cell to be rolled over) to change based on different items in your spreadsheet? We can use the in-cell Hyperlink() formula to accomplish this.

The Hyperlink() formula looks like this:

=Hyperlink(location, [Friendly Text])
location - Here you write the intended address of your hyperlink. This can be a webpage (i.e. "http://www.google.com") or a file on your computer.
[Friendly Text] - This is an optional field that provides a caption to your hyperlink. If you leave it blank, it will simply display the address in the previous parameter.

To begin our example, you'll need to create a User Defined Function (UDF) to be executed when the rollover event is initiated. So go into the Visual Basic Environment, create or find a free module and create a UDF that looks something like this.

Public Function MyMouseOverEvent()

Sheet1.Range("A1").Value = "Event Fired!"

End Function

I can understand if you're puzzled at this point. UDFs are not really allowed to change values in other cells. However, since we'll be calling this function from within the Hyperlink() formula, you'll see this limitation no longer exists.

So now go to Sheet1 and click on cell A2. In that cell, type in the following formula:

=HYPERLINK(MyMouseOverEvent(),"Click here")

Upon hitting Enter, you should get a #VALUE! error, but ignore it for a second. Roll your mouse over cell A2 - and viola! - Cell A1 should now say "Event Fired!"

But what about that pesky #VALUE! error? Remember the limitation that UDFs can't change other cells? Well, even though Excel let's you change a value from within your UDF, it still recognizes that it wasn't supposed to! To get rid of that error is pretty simple. Just rewrite the function in your cell as follows:

=IFERROR(HYPERLINK(MyMouseOverEvent(),"Click here"), "Click here")

And that's it. If you like this technique and find some cool uses for it, drop me an email and show me.

Here's some graphical fun I created using this technique. Putting the mouse inside the black rectangle creates a fading snake-like pattern based on your mouse movements. Check out the screen capture:

Make sure to check out my latest (and greatest) example of this technique, here:

Periodic Table of Elements in Excel: Rollover Edition!

Author: Unknown Labels: Dashboards, Dynamic Charts, Excel Development, Interactive Dashboards, Spreadsheet Tricks, VBA