Customer Reviews & Comments
The 'For Dummies' books have done it again. This is a complete and thourough introduction to using Xcelsius to give you an entirely new set of sophisticated ways to show Excel data in graphical form. Xcelsius specializes in what they call dashboards. That is, the data is diaplayed in the form of gauges (speedometer, gas gauge, they even have what they call 'alerts' that are close to idiot lights). You can also design inputs in the form of sliders, buttons, again, not unlike an automobile dashboard. In addition to dashboards there are other features such a maps, enhanced charts, pictures -- all kinds of things to ehnance the visual experience of a presentation. Technically, Xcelsius compiles your visual model into a Flash (.swf) file and creates an HTML file that calls the .swf file. The HTML file is of course presented using a web browser, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Outlook, or Plumtree. As in most 'For Dummies' books, this one starts slow, builds on the base, and by the end of the book you have a pretty good idea about the whole thing.