Dynamic Presentations
With Crystal Xcelsius
Ami Kastner

Have you ever thought about how you could change your Excel spreadsheets into dynamic presentations? Do you ever look at your reports and wonder if there is a better way to get the results to really make a visual impact? Business Objects, creator of Crystal Reports has an answer to those questions with the release of Crystal Xcelsius.

Crystal Xcelsius is a program that can literally take any type of information and transform it into interactive visuals or dashboards. The presentations that are created using Xcelsius can be derived from Excel spreadsheets, high-end reporting functions, or any other external data source. The data is then designed using gauges, calculators, charts, graphs, and other eye-catching visual objects. Creating an Xcelsius dashboard requires no programming. The presentations can then be used on their own or integrated into Microsoft Office products including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Creating an Xcelsius presentation breaks down into three simple steps. Step One is to bring the data into Xcelsius using an Excel spreadsheet. Step Two is the actual design of the presentation which is as simple as point and click. Step Three is to determine the output of your presentation.

The following screen shows the basic layout of the program. The different types of gauges, sliders, dials, charts, graphs, etc. are all displayed on the left-hand side of the screen.



Now you can see what some of the options are that you can use in your presentations:



This is a sample of the data obtained from an Excel spreadsheet:



This is how the information can used to create an Xcelsius presentation:

In the above presentation, you can click on Sales, COGS, Other Expenses, and Revenue to see the statistics in each of those areas.

In the following presentation, you can choose the fast food restaurant and then choose the products you would like to eat from there. When you hit calculate, the Xcelsius presentation will calculate such amounts as Calories, Carbohydrates, Sodium, etc.



Xcelsius presentations are simple, yet they look like you spent hours creating them. They make a visual impact that is easy for others to understand. The interaction within Xcelsius presentations can really show the numbers within a company or product. With the interaction, you can create presentations that show sales numbers, job cost, profit, etc. You can see how one area impacts another such as if you decrease your job cost by 2%, you can see how the profit will be affected. Presentations can be created that show how your sales reps are doing in comparison to each other and in prior years. The possibilities are absolutely endless.

If you have any questions regarding Crystal Xcelsius or would like more information, please contact Drake Hardware & Software at 319.752.1155 or email us at info@drakehs.com.