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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents.........................................................................................................................................................................2
BI Consulting Group’s “Best Practices” ........................................................................................................................................3
Best Practices using Oracle BI “Enterprise Edition” .....................................................................................................................4
“Best Practice” Dashboard Design ...............................................................................................................................................5
Dashboard Editor Settings .......................................................................................................................................................6
Dashboard Editor Settings .......................................................................................................................................................7
Report Width as it pertains to Dashboards...............................................................................................................................7
Dashboard Width......................................................................................................................................................................8
Number of Dashboard Tabs.....................................................................................................................................................8
Charts and other Visualization Best Practices..............................................................................................................................9
Charting Basics ..........................................................................................................................................................................10
All Chart Types.......................................................................................................................................................................10
Chart Colors, Fonts, Backgrounds, Color Series....................................................................................................................11
Bar Charts..............................................................................................................................................................................11
Horizontal Bar Charts versus Vertical Bar Charts ..................................................................................................................11
Pie Charts ..............................................................................................................................................................................12
Advanced Charting Techniques .................................................................................................................................................15
Line-Bar Combination Charts .................................................................................................................................................15
Line-Bar Combination Charts without incorrectly implying a “Trend”......................................................................................16
Bubble Charts (One of our Favorites).....................................................................................................................................20
Building a Bubble Chart..........................................................................................................................................................21
HTML (Programmed) Charts..................................................................................................................................................22
HTML Formula .......................................................................................................................................................................22
Using View Selectors when Charts are Drillable ....................................................................................................................23
Tabular Reports and Pivot Tables..............................................................................................................................................25
Tabular Reports......................................................................................................................................................................26
Stretch Table View to 100% Width.........................................................................................................................................27
Report-Based Totaling ...........................................................................................................................................................27
Column and Table Headings..................................................................................................................................................28
Pivot Table Section Properties ...............................................................................................................................................34
Stretch Pivot Table View to 100% Width................................................................................................................................36
Advanced Design: Columns Selectors, View Selectors, Conditional Formatting, and Guided Navigation ................................37
Column Selectors...................................................................................................................................................................37
View Selectors .......................................................................................................................................................................38
Conditional Formatting ...........................................................................................................................................................40
Using Section Headings to Identify “Exceptions” and Hiding / Un-Hiding Sections ................................................................41
Dashboard and Report Advanced Formatting............................................................................................................................47
Filter Objects ..........................................................................................................................................................................47
Header & Footers...................................................................................................................................................................49
Page Breaks between Dashboard Sections...........................................................................................................................51
Short Cuts, Cheats and Other Tips & Tricks ..............................................................................................................................52
Reusing Charts (and Cross-Tabs) once all “Best Practices” settings have been made .........................................................53
Reusing an Entire Report “Module” to speed Development of Subsequent Reports..............................................................54
Quickly Adding the Reports Name to the Dashboard Section Heading..................................................................................56
More Tips and Tricks..............................................................................................................................................................57
Naming Conventions..................................................................................................................................................................58
Presentation Layer Naming Conventions...............................................................................................................................59
Report Naming Conventions ..................................................................................................................................................60
Directory Naming Conventions...............................................................................................................................................60
Prompt Naming Conventions .................................................................................................................................................60
Alert Naming Conventions......................................................................................................................................................61
Filter Naming Conventions.....................................................................................................................................................61
Directory location of non-Report objects such as Prompts, Alerts and Filters ........................................................................61
About BI Consulting Group.........................................................................................................................................................63
