What is a digital dashboard?What is a digital dashboard?
A digital dashboard is a view of different types of data all on one Web page so you that you can get a quick overview of the information you use each day. For example, your digital dashboard might contain summary information about current top issues in your department, high priority email messages, links to corporate sales data, and news feeds.
You can create a digital dashboard from Microsoft Office applications by clicking Add Network Place on the New document task pane, and following the instructions in the Add Network Place Wizard. To create a digital dashboard, you must have access to a folder on an Exchange 2000 or a Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. Then, you can save different types of data from Office applications to use on your digital dashboard. Each type of data is a separate component called a Web Part.
By default, a digital dashboard consists of a single page, but you can create additional dashboard pages, called subdashboards, which are linked from the home page of a digital dashboard.
A digital dashboard and any subdashboards it contains display Web Parts, which are reusable components for displaying information that reside within the digital dashboard page. Web Parts can consist of simple HTML text for announcements and notifications; dynamic displays of data, such as lists or charts of stock quotes and sales figures; or information from other Web sites displayed within a frame. Web Parts can also contain controls, scripting, Dynamic HTML (DHTML), or Extensible Markup Language (XML) to provide interactivity.
You can import Web Parts or create your own Web Parts by saving documents as Web pages from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Microsoft FrontPage into a digital dashboard folder. Additionally, you can create data access pages in Microsoft Access and save them as Web Parts by saving them into a digital dashboard folder.
By using the information and tools available in the Digital Dashboard Resource Kit, you can create more complex Web Parts that integrate an organization’s existing systems with the analytical and collaborative tools in products such as Excel, Access, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Microsoft SQL Server. For more information about digital dashboards, and to download the Digital Dashboard Resource Kit, see the Microsoft Digital Dashboard Web site.
How can I use Microsoft Excel data in a digital dashboard?
Say you want to add a chart to your digital dashboard that tracks your latest sales figures. You can create a chart in Excel based on those sales figures and then publish the chart interactively to a digital dashboard folder. Fill out the required information for your Web Part in the Web File Properties dialog box, and the part is ready for use in your digital dashboard.