Xcelsius
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook pricing
Apparently Amazon.com decided to remove the ‘standard’ discount on our SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard 4.0 cookbook. It is now selling at $54.99 for the paperback edition + shipping costs.
So if you haven’t picked up the book yet and want to save a few bucks, check the Packt Publishing website and get it for $49,49 with free shipping over there!
Posted in: Books, Cookbook, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, Xcelsius
Intelligent printing in SAP BO Dashboards
The Print button component in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 (Xcelsius) has a pretty basic functionality: It prints your complete dashboard; it’s all-or-nothing. The only setting you can make is whether the dashboard should be scaled to fit the page or to a certain percentage. After clicking this print button the standard Windows print window appears where you can select a printer and start printing. So yeah, that’s pretty basic stuff.
I want to share a quick preview of the upcoming Dash Printer Add-on for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards by Data Savvy Tools, which seems to be what the Print button should have looked like. With this add-on the dashboard user is free to select the exact output he wants to get printed. So if only a certain chart or table of the dashboard should be printed, we now can select this area, snap a picture of it and print it. I like the queueing features which lets you snap multiple screenshots before the actual printing starts. You can change the print order and set some layout and formatting options.
There is also a feature that lets you change the state of the dashboards without leaving the selection mode by holding the CTRL-key. On my Mac this gives a problem, because CTRL-click still is recognized as right-clicking the mouse. This is one of the things left from the one-buttoned mouse era the Mac was in until some years ago. Luckily the Mac Command-key does the same trick.
Try this handy add-on below or check the Data Savvy Tools website for more info. You can also watch a video below which demonstrates all features for you.
Posted in: SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusCookbook Tweetaway Winners
I want to thank everyone who participated in the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook Tweetaway contest over the last 2 weeks! Over 100 tweets have been sent.
Congrats to the 2 lucky tweeps who have won an eBook copy of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook! The winners are @rodri_m_d and @montoyainigo. We’ll be contacting you guys shortly to give you your copies of the Cookbook.
Have fun baking!
Posted in: Books, Cookbook, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusSAP BO Dashboards cookbook Tweetaway
Okay guys, it is time to give some stuff away. On behalf of Packt Publishing we can give away two eBook copies of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards cookbook we released a few weeks ago.
Joining this giveaway Tweetaway is easy: Just send out a tweet with a link to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards’ cookbook page on PacktPub.com in it. You can use the share buttons on the cookbook page itself, or just click this link. Retweeting other tweeps is also allowed and you can tweet as much as you want.
On monday 25th July we will pick the two winners and grant them access to their free eBooks. Good luck!
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook released
I am very happy to announce the release of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook I worked on the past year with co-author David Lai and the team at Packt Publishing.
In this book we discuss over 90 so-called recipes that give a step-by-step explanation of the possibilities of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, formerly known as Xcelsius to create advanced dashboards. We cover the ins & outs of the Dashboard Design components, creating drill-downs, applying dynamic visibility, alerts and exporting & publishing. Also we show you how to improve the look and feel of your dashboard and how to use the spreadsheet in an optimal way. Furthermore dashboard connectivity options (i.e. SAP BW, BI4, XML) are included and we discuss the top third-party add-ons for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards like the GMaps plugin and Antivia XWIS.
Each recipe is supported by a large number of screenshots and for most of the recipes we included XLF source files for even better understanding. Throughout the book you will find lots of tips, tricks and best practices.
The book is published in eBook (ePub and DRM-free PDF) and paperback format and is available from the Packt Publishing website. Here you can find more info on the book, the table of contents and a sample chapter. Also this is the place to download the XLF and SWF source files we provide with the book.
