Excel Video 95 demonstrates how to use check boxes inside a group box to allow users to choose which data to show on a chart. Our sample data is established patient E&M codes for four physicians and the chart shows the relative percentages of each of the five billing codes by physician. Making the chart update automatically is a two-step process. First, we have to decide which doctors to include in the chart.
The group box is simply a container to hold the check boxes we’ll need. We can add or take away each doctor from our chart by checking the appropriate box. The check boxes are linked to cells B2 to F2, which simply track True or False. If a doctor’s cell is True, the doctor’s data appears in the chart.
Once we’ve determined which doctors to include in the chart, the final step is to define a whole bunch of names using the Name Manager we’ve used in the past. We’ll walk through the names next time.
After recording the Excel Video, I went back and formatted the check boxes with the color of the chart line. By making the check box the same color as the chart line, I’m able to delete the chart’s legend and have more room for my data. The other advantage of deleting the legend is I no longer have data series in the chart legend that aren’t in the actual chart. Look at the changes in the next Excel Video. I think it looks a lot better.
