Adding Aesthetics: Sites? Books? Tips?

[DerekK]

Good folk,

I am coming along, slowly but surely, with my Excel VBA and formulas, but I cannot seem to come up with good ideas on making a sharp-looking spreadsheet: it all looks too terribly crude, rudimentary, amateurish.

Does anyone know of sites, books or tips on putting a polish on? I'm not looking for an application or anything like that, that will do it for me: I'm convinced that, if I get a little inspiration, I can take it from there.

Hope you can help.

Thanks,



Derek

 

[xenou]

A thought came to mind a few days ago that Excel on screen and Excel on paper are two different animals - so up front its a good question to ask "will this be printed? If so, B/W or Color, and on what size paper?" As an aside, I use some really ugly colors sometimes because it prints well in B/W - like the flourescent yellow highlight, which comes out a nice light grey (while light grey comes out too dark).

I was thinking of your post this weekend and made a real effort to come up with something new for presentation in a report I was creating. It's not easy! But I managed something a little different and modestly presentable (graphic design is not my strength).

 

[OfficeUser]

I have jazzed up excel to the point where it didn't look like excel at all. I made all backgrounds and borders in photoshop. It looks great but serves no purpose. I even went as far as having userforms that faded out when closed. I was asked to do it, so I obliged.

 

[Joe4]

Maybe your boss will be happy if you follow Calvin's advice here.
Go to: http://chquotes.synthasite.com/search.php
and type in "binder" in the Search box to see what I mean.

(sorry, a little-off topic, but I couldn't resist!)

 

[OfficeUser]

Maybe your boss will be happy if you follow Calvin's advice here.
Go to: http://chquotes.synthasite.com/search.php
and type in "binder" in the Search box to see what I mean.

(sorry, a little-off topic, but I couldn't resist!)

So true, but funny.

 

[xenou]

Alas, I once handed in a paper and the teacher removed the binder right before my eyes and handed it back to me

"But...my grade...", I wanted to say, "it's going to go down now..."

 

[DerekK]

(graphic design is not my strength).

Aye, same here.

To answer your (rhetorical?) question, the main part of this will be solely viewed on screen; but I will be printing elements of it.

Nothing's set in stone: if anyone knows some polished spreadsheets, let me know!

 

[RoryA]

Check out the Perceptual Edge web site and Stephen Few's Show Me the Numbers book. Also most things by Tufte.

 

[DerekK]

Cheers from Worthing, West Sussex, rorya!

 

[RoryA]

Nice part of the world.