Last Fall, a Microsoft manager said he had recommended me as a Microsoft Excel MVP.

The Microsoft Person In Charge of MVP Nominations, or some such title, told me not to get very excited about the nomination because only a few nominees are selected...months after they're nominated. So after a few weeks, I forgot about the nomination.

But then, a few days ago, UPS delivered a big cardboard box from Microsoft. Inside, I found a nice canvas computer bag, with "Microsoft MVP" on it. I also found a framed certificate that said I was a Microsoft MVP.

When I returned to my office after unpacking the box, several emails had arrived from Microsoft. They congratulated me on my selection and explained how to sign up for some free software and for the password-protected newsgroup and web site.

On the web site, I learned that there now are nearly 60 Excel MVPs, including MVPs well-known for their newsgroup participation: Rob Bovey, Ron de Bruin, Stephen Bullen, Debra Dalgleish, Bill Manville, David McRitchie, Tushar Mehta, Tom Ogilvy, Chip Pearson, Bob Umlas, and John Walkenbach. Together, these eleven people have written nearly 250,000 newsgroup messages. And John Walkenbach, of course, has written nearly that many Excel books.

I feel like a Private in a room full of Generals.

I'm going to teach you how to create dashboards like the ones shown here.

My goal is to give you everything you need: sample workbooks, step-by-step instructions, formulas, a macro you'll need, design ideas, and so on. And I'll be happy to answer your questions after the seminar.

The seminar is priced per telephone connection. So feel free to pack your conference room with Excel users who listen to the call on a speaker phone.

You'll find the complete details about the seminar here.
 

During the next six weeks I'll give at least three seminars about dashboard reporting. In addition to next week's seminar, I'll give two seminars in February for the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

The longest of these will be a four-hour seminar that I'll give to an IMA regional conference on February 24 in Reno, Nevada. If Microsoft has launched the public beta of Office 12 by then, I'll also talk about that product.

I'm hoping that I can get your help for these seminars and for others that I'll be giving this year.

I'm looking for examples -- both good and bad -- of the current state of the art of management reporting with Excel. Obviously, I don't want to see your actual numbers; but I do want to see the formats of your various reporting packages.

I plan to illustrate my techniques by creating an improved version of those packages. If I create a new version of your material, I'll send it to you as one or more Excel workbooks, at no charge.

Here's how to disguise the numbers in your reports:

• If you use formulas to pull your data from some external source, first change those formulas to values. To do so, select the cells that contain the formulas, copy them, and then paste to the same range using Edit, Paste Special, Values.
  
• Disguise the numbers. The best way to disguise your data is to scale your numbers upwards or downwards by some random amount. To do so, enter a number like 2.98 or .37 in an empty cell. Copy this number. Select the data in your report. Then choose Edit, Paste Special, Multiply. If you want, multiply different sections by different random numbers.
  
• Disguise your titles. If your report includes a heading like, "Berkshire Division", you might prefer to replace the heading with some other title, like "Woodbridge Division". In other words, make it look like a real division, just not your division, or product, or whatever.
  
• Don't worry if your company name or logo is on your report. Because logos take more work to disguise, I'll do that myself.

By the time others see the reports you send me, they won't know what company created the report, what divisions or products the report is about, nor the original values in the report. But they will be able to see the report format that you used, and the numbers will something like real numbers.

Thanks for your help. As the year passes, I hope to return the favor by sending you improved versions of the reports you send me.

These newsletters normally concentrate more on the use of Excel in business. But this month and next month I'll be up to my neck in dashboard seminars. So time is at a premium. By March, I hope to have the time to discuss some Excel topics that are more hands-on.

Enough for now.