Displaying columns, fields from Excel as a chart.

[#1]

I am trying to create a simple dashboard that shows me how may days are due to project deadlines. It is a simple spreadsheet with a column with the "Project Name" and a "Days Due" column. I want a bar graph that shows the project name on the X axis and the days due on the Y axis within a time that I specify. In other words each project has a total due date of 90 days. However I want see when the due date is less than 30 days away. I am hoping to do this based  on color.

Some coloring options. Bar is normally green, when the due date is <=20 then it turns orange, when the due date is <=15 days away the bar turns red. Graph Y axis should be detailed enough to see how many days are left when the due days gets to the 30 day mark. Or perhaps the X axis could display the project name and a numerical due days.

I can insert a table that shows the project names an the due dates. But the graphing part is not working .I can display the project names on the bottom of the graph and I can make bars appear on the graph but they do not reflect the data that is in the spreadsheet. The due date is just a number. I just want to display that number as a bar. I tried some of the functions. Count() makes each bar a value of 1, and Sum() makes a graph with plus and minus values. I don't know how to just display the number as it is. I am familiar with Excel functions but these are not the same.

DJ...

.

[#2]

Ah ha! I finally found it. Had to open up the individual message. Not the most brilliant GUI I have seen...

DJ...

[#3]

Rob,

I finally got your attachment! It seems for some reason when I go into the code editor something puts in a newline in the middle of things. It even did it to your code. Being careful not to leave it there I continued.

I somehow fumbled my way to this attached third version of the spreadsheet. Wherein I was able to get some data to show somewhat like I want it. The graph is 1 to 20 days out. The items over 20 days are reflected, the item under 20 days are reflected, and the item that is in the negative is also reflected. So far not too bad.

However I am moving on to color. I want under 20 days to turn orange, and under 15 days to turn red. However my attempts at changing the colors by expression are having syntax errors. Perhaps coming from the world of Excel programming I am at a disadvantage.

Questions:

1) How can I make the graph smaller and retain the data on it? It seems when I resize the graph it starts dropping off data points. In the end I want four such graphs from different data sets on my dashboard.

2) How do I "Save As" the spreadsheet qvf file under a different file name? So I can keep different versions afloat.

2) How do you display the end results as a "dashboard"? I started out wanting something that would sit on my desktop all the time and tell me things. As the days of "gadgets" are over I started looking into this.

DJ...

[rwunderlich]

1) When you make the chart smaller, QS will resize the bars, and in some cases drop some bars. You can control how many bars will display. However, if you tilt the labels, QS will retain quite a few more bars.

2) In don't know of any "Save As" functionality for QS Desktop. Anyone else?

3) What you are looking at is "the dashboard". You can embed the chart in another webpage if you're ok with writing a bit of javascript uisng the mashup API.

-Rob