Datasheet

Although you can easily get lost in the stunning graphics, remember that
Crystal Xcelsius is a versatile tool that allows you to do more than just
create fancy-looking presentations. Take a look at some of the other things
that you can accomplish with Crystal Xcelsius that you might not have
thought about.
Creating more robust presentations with
interactive summary and detail layers
I exported a sample dashboard into a PowerPoint file called Chapter1 -
Example_A, which you can find at the companion Web site for this book.
To follow along with the demonstration in this section, go to this book’s
companion Web site. (The exact address appears in the Introduction.)
Open the Chapter1 - Example_A PowerPoint presentation, found in the
C:\Xcelsius Sample Files\Chapter 1 directory, and run the slide
show. Figure 1-4 shows the interactive dashboard that you see in the slide
show. The idea is to select a Sales Rep from the list to see the key metrics
for that Sales Rep.
To run the slide show in PowerPoint, go to the menu and choose Slide Show
View Show. I show you how to export Crystal Xcelsius dashboards into
PowerPoint in Chapter 12.
What is the point of this demonstration? Think about how much data is con-
tained in this one-megabyte presentation. For 14 Sales Reps, you are showing
the metrics around each rep’s actual revenue, budget target, and revenue fore-
cast. Not for 1 month, mind you, but for 12 months! Consider how many slides
it would take to present something similar to this dashboard in a standard
slide show. You can imagine that this would take, at a minimum, 14 slides to
produce similar results — with less appealing graphics.
Figure 1-3:
Many
people
use Crystal
Xcelsius
for the
sleek, fluid
graphics.
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Chapter 1: Introducing Crystal Xcelsius
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