Excel Chart Tamer
Francisco, on the XLCubed blog, announced last week that BonaVista Systems is teaming up with Stephen Few of Perceptual Edge to develop a new Excel add-in product called Excel Chart Tamer.
Chart Tamer will do the following:
Limit the library of chart types to those that really work, thereby reducing the complexity of choosing appropriate charts
- Revise the formatting defaults of the charts to present data clearly
- Restrict chart formatting options to those that really work
- Revise the color palette to encourage the effective use of color in charts
- Provide a new interface for selecting the appropriate chart type, which will guide the user to an effective choice based on the nature of the data and purpose of the chart
Chart Tamer will work with all versions of Excel from Excel 2000 on. (source)
This is excellent news and really made my week. Bringing the expertise of Stephen together with a company that understands data visualization and analytics using add-in products for Excel is definitely the way to go. It’s too bad Business Objects hasn’t caught on to this outlandish and intricate concept. Sorry, I hate to digress… If Excel Chart Tamer is anything like MicroCharts by BonaVista Systems, I think it will be a huge success. According to Francisco, they are expecting to have a beta version available in late October. Stay tuned!
