So How Many Of These Excel Shortcuts Do You Know, Punk ?

Posted on 19 January 2010

So you thought you knew every goddam' Excel shortcut out there? Thought that you were the quickest draw around the office block. Not so fast sunny boy ... not so fast ! You've just ventured into the mean and vicious badlands of the Bison. You have two choices - stop reading this here ... ... OR ... stay back and take up the challenge .... So before I have your ego blown off, I will give you 7 chances to salvage it. Excel Shortcut ... Continue Reading

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Volatility Chart in Excel - Lessons in Chart Design From NY Times

Posted on 12 January 2010

Here's a slightly dated chart from NY Times showing volatility on the Wall St across the century. The chart does commendable work in conveying information about a longish time series pretty effectively. I found some great chart design principles at work here that I could utilize for day to day charting needs. (Click on image to open larger version. Click here for the original version) Here's a look at a few of those ... Continue Reading

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An Excel Chart’s Journey Across Versions

Posted on 10 January 2010

Sometime back I wrote a post on making control charts using Excel. The chart was initially created in Excel 2003. The chart consisted of the plot values, the average line and upper & lower control limits. While the main data series was a line chart, the average, upper and lower control limits were plotted as dots of an X-Y and then were extended into lines using the horizontal error bars. Shown below is a sample. ... Continue Reading

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A Big Thank You

Posted on 08 January 2010

Its been one and a half year since I started this blog. For the first few months, I thought I was writing only to myself (I still sometimes do when I don't get too many comments for a couple of days at a stretch). But, things have been great lately. The blog now receives a respectable number of visits a day and while that is good in itself, the better part is that ... Continue Reading

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Square Bubble Heatmap Chart

Posted on 06 January 2010

A what!!! A Square Bubble Heatmap Chart !!! What has the Bison been eating lately. Frankly .. I don't really have a name for this chart. It is a bubble chart. The bubbles are square. And it's a heatmap. So I'll call it a Square Bubble Heatmap Chart or better still, S.B.H.C. for short 8-) . The Basic Data Set For the Bubble Chart Now let us assume for a moment that ... Continue Reading

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Treemap Add-In For Excel - Treemap Software Demo

Posted on 29 December 2009

Treemaps are an interesting way to look at data. Here is the first preview of the treemap add-in for excel. Being a demo, the number of data points are limited to 250. Also, to keep things simple, the demo is being made available as a standalone excel workbook. Usage Download the excel workbook given at the end of the post. The demo will work only with Excel 2003 although the complete add-in has been tested to work with Excel 2003 upto ... Continue Reading

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