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| The Accordion Component in Xcelsius |
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| Written by Loren Abdulezer | ||||||
Page 1 of 3
Fig. 1 This is not a screen shot; this is the actual file. In my last article, many of you were clamoring for the spreadsheet and source files. Well you're in for a treat. All the files are available for download. There is one catch (there always is); to use the source files, you will need to have either the trial version or the full version of Xcelsius Version 4. It is worth downloading.
Part 1 - Setting up the Accordion Interface Let me start by explaining what the Accordion component does and how it is intended to be used. Consider some data like the following:  Figure 2 When you see data like this, the first thing you want to do is to characterize it. You've got some 50 states and the District of Columbia. You also have the breakout by Region. It would be nice to sift through the regions, zero in on a single state and get all the data belonging to it. That's precisely what the Accordion component accomplishes.  Figure 3
To populate the Accordion component, you will need to create inside your spreadsheet, a map of how you want your "accordion" data organized. 
To populate the Accordion component, you will need to create inside your spreadsheet, a map of how you want your "accordion" data organized. 
Notice the list of regions and the member states for each region. This is what gives the physical structure to the Accordion component.  Figure 4 When you drop the Accordion component onto your Xcelsius canvas, you can select the component properties (using Alt+Enter).  Figure 5 You can point and click to the appropriate portions in the underlying spreadsheet. For starters, click the Add button to add new categories. When adding new categories, you have the option of allowing Xcelsius to generate names like Category 1, Category 2, ... If possible, point and click to the appropriate names from the underlying spreadsheet. You already have all this information in your organization map, including the member categories (Fig. 4). The whole purpose of using the Accordion interface is to select the items and categories that interest you. Once these are pinpointed, it becomes possible to retrieve the underlying data. To complete the interface, you need to tell the Accordion component where the selected categories and items are going to be inserted in your spreadsheet. For the inserted items (in this case, the states), you have the option to insert labels, values, rows, columns, position, or status list.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 March 2007 ) | ||||||
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