I. Dashboard Charts in Excel

Microsoft Excel provides many types of charts, like Bar Charts. Pie Chart, Line Segment Charts, etc. But there is no Dashboard Charts, or Gauge Charts, or Speedometer Charts, in Excel. Below is an example of Dashboard Chart generated by our ActiveX:

Because of its simplicity and because it is easy to understand, Dashboard Charts are preferred by the management. Unfortunately, Excel does not provide them. Our ActiveX/COM is coming to rescue, to help you generate Dashboard Chart in Excel 2000/02/03/07, for free.

II. Install Dashboard Chart ActiveX.

Just download version for Excel 2000 , 2002 ,  2003 , or 2007, which matches your local Excel version, then Unzip and Setup. Once it is done, you will be able to generate the Dashboard Charts from Excel Macros (VBA), VB6 program, or VB Script. There is a simple sample VB6 project included, called DashboardTest2.vbp. This project shows you how to use the ActiveX. You can use VB6 to open it and learn the Application program Interface (API). Here is another VB6 sample project to demonstrate the usage of Dashboard Chart ActiveX 2003.

III. How to Generate Dashboard Chart in VB:

The VB code sample:

(After you have added the reference of Dashboard into your project: Project -> References -> Check Dashboard -> OK)

Private Sub Command1_Click()

Dim xDash As New Dashboard.DashBoardChart

Call xDash.GaugeChart(App.Path & "\Book1.xls", "M2 Title", -5, 0, 10, 25, 17, 100, 100, 400, 300)

End Sub

Tells us that in order to use this ActiveX, we will need to New it:

Dim xDash As New Dashboard.DashBoardChart

Once we New it we can use it:

Call xDash.GaugeChart(App.Path & "\Book1.xls", "M2 Title", -5, 0, 10, 25, 17, 100, 100, 400, 300)

The parameter list is:

GaugeChart(FullPathofExcelFile, ChartTitle, v1, v2, v3, v4, v, top, left, width, height)

Where

v1 is the value of the left edge of the Red Area.

v2 is the value of the left edge of the Yellow area.

v3 is the value of the left edge of the Green Area.

v4 is the value of the right edge of the Green Area.

v is the value of the pointer.   

top, left, width, and height define the location and the size of the chart in the spreadsheet.