Let’s dig a little deeper into the tool. Chart Advisor is a
prototype (in other words, a work in progress) Excel add-in
that appears as a button on the Insert ribbon next to the
standard charting tools as shown below.
It automates the chart-generation process, using an
advanced rules engine to scan your data for properties that
inherently make good charts, and produces the results.
After it generates the charts, Chart Advisor ranks them
and displays the set as thumbnails in a new dialog window.
From here, you can manipulate the charts by changing how
the data is mapped and filter data from the chart. When
done, you can insert the chart back into the spreadsheet.
The first step (after installing the program) is to open
Excel 2007 and create or open a spreadsheet with the data
you would like to chart. Highlight the proper cells and go to
the Insert menu and left-click Chart Advisor on the ribbon.
The results will look something like the figure below.
The highest ranked charts will appear on the top row.
You can either scroll through this list or fully expand it to
see a window, much like the figure below. Selecting any
of the samples will show a full-size image. You can use the
filtering tools to change data points which will change the
sample charts. Once you’re satisfied, click the Insert Chart
button near the bottom and your fancy new chart will
embed into the active worksheet. From there, you can use
any of the standard charting tools to make any additional
tweaks you desire.
At the time of publication, this was only available to users
of Excel 2007. Due to the nature of the add-in, I would not
expect this to be available from Microsoft for Excel 2003
or older.
Cloud Computing
When cloud computing takes off—it’s currently in the early stages—I suspect the way we use computers will change
forever. Smaller machines with lower power requirements,
smaller hard drives, longer battery life, etc. can all come
from this. This topic deserves a whole series in Cool Tools,
but for this installment I just want to introduce you to it, get
you thinking about it, and who knows, maybe even get the
forms software folks thinking about it. Some already are.
In simple terms, cloud computing is a combination of
things, but it generally includes the Internet as the metaphor for the cloud. Rather than having applications and
software tools on your computer, they reside on the Internet. Using various services and Web-based tools and storage
locations, all of your documents and the software you use
to create those documents are “up in the clouds.”
A good example of this is in practice today, and I suspect
some of you are already cloud computing without possibly knowing it if you use Gmail, HotMail or AOL. In
fact, Google has really taken the lead in this area with their
Google Apps suite ( www.google.com/a).
Google describes its apps as “software as a service for
business e-mail, information sharing and security.” Free applications include Gmail for e-mail and Google Docs, which
is a suite not unlike Microsoft Office, but with a couple of
