Excel Dashboards and Reports For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5

Formatting Your Way to Visualizations

In This Chapter

Using conditional formatting

Working with symbols in formulas

Using the Camera tool

Visualization is the presentation of abstract concepts or data in visual terms through some sort of graphical imagery. A traffic light, for example, is a visualization of the abstract concepts of stop and go.

In the business world, visualizations help us communication and process the meaning of data faster than simple tables of numbers. Excel offers business analysts a wide array of features that can be used to add visualizations to dashboards and reports.

In this chapter, you explore some of the formatting techniques you can leverage to add layers of visualizations that can turn your data into meaningful views.

Enhancing Reports with Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is the term given to Excel’s capability to dynamically change the formatting of a value, cell, or range of cells based on a set of conditions you define. Conditional formatting adds a level of visualization that allows you to look at your Excel reports and make split-second determinations on which values are “good” and which are “bad,” simply based on formatting. ...