Design  your data for dynamic display

You can display key features in your data dynamically to grab attention. Ms-excel, Ms-powerpoint provide tools for displaying data  using animations.  Following tips  can help experimenting on a data set to simulate simple animations in excel.

1)generate dynamic version of data display using macro

For example you can record the sequence of operations for making a chart from a set of data  in a macro and run the macro. It will display all the actions you performed. Following procedure tells how to create and run a macro.

Click on menu ‘ tools’ (in older excel)(ribbon ‘view’ in new)  –  click on macro   –  click on record macro   -  in the macro name box enter a name for the macro – enter a letter for short cut key to run the macro  in short cut key box  -  click on tab create   –  start recording the macro (for using relative reference  choose the tab near stop recording) -  perform all the actions you want your macro to record  -  to stop recording click relative reference button again if it is on -  else click stop recording -  Save the macro in same or different worksheet.

Generate a dynamic version of creating a bar chart from a table of data by recording all the actions you perform in a macro. Use run  to run the macro from tool menu/view ribbon. You can use the short cut key also.

2)animation using conditional formatting

Apply conditional formatting for creating beautiful animations on your data set. You can pick out an important data  or range of data from huge list.

For applying conditional formatting quickly locate important data on a huge worksheet. Select the cells containing the data. Click on format - conditional formatting - select an operation - operator to use. (in new versions of excel start from Home - styles - conditional formatting).

Useful   functions for helping creating animation using conditional formatting are int,  rand,  mod, row, rept, if.  To understand conditional formatting have practice on using these functions on a  data set.

Example: fill a cell using function rept(text, number-times). Copy same to different cells on the worksheet, use  function row() along with rept to generate different pattern in different rows.

:generate random numbers between two numbers using function rand. the general formula =rand()*(b-a)+a will return random number from the interval (a,b), greater than equal to a and less than b. Example =int(rand()*10) this formula generates random numbers between 0 and 9.

Copy same to different cells to make patterns.

:mod returns the remainder from division, syntax mod(number,divisor). example: applying conditional formatting a formula  like  =mod(row(),5)<2  generates different  patterns.

:animating a text

Select the text you want to animate – click on format on menu bar -  click on font  - text dialog box appears – click on the text effect tab –click an animation effect you want – click on ok to confirm.

:changing color of an image

An image can be processed by changing colors differently in different parts putting conditional formatting.

3)rapid display of a sequence of images

Use a macro as a counter and display series of images repeatedly. Use  insert/delete picture to insert a series of pictures to get good animations.