Transcription
Hello guys, welcome to Data Tutorials. In today's video, we will see how to create a track view background for our dashboard. This can be used in several visualization tools like Tableau Desktop, Power BI, Excel, or Click View, and many other visualization tools as well. So, this is a customized background which will be created in PowerPoint and it can be then transformed to these visualization tools. And you can use it as your background to make your dashboard more intuitive, more attractive, and more visually appealing. So, it gives your users, your clients, a best viewing experience where they find the dashboard attractive. And you can also use different color combinations on that so that it looks great for presentations as well.
All right, so I have already created a few backgrounds and which I have already used in some of my dashboards. So I will show you in Tableau which I have used. So this is an HR dashboard and the design of this dashboard, I have already uploaded a few videos on this. You can find those in the description box. This is made in Tableau. So you can see the background of this, and it is made in PowerPoint and it is a custom-built background. You cannot make it in Tableau as a direct, what we can say, an inbuilt picture for Tableau. So this is a customized based and you can see it is very much attractive as well. So I have already prepared one more video. So you can see this is also a custom-based background. So this is a sales dashboard. This is also made in Tableau and the design of this, I've already uploaded some videos on this as well. You can go ahead and watch and you can see how this is built as well.
All right, so apart from this, I have built some Excel dashboards as well. So the background of this particular Excel dashboard is also customized and prepared in Tableau, sorry, in PowerPoint. So this is an Excel dashboard or an MIS dashboard, we can say. And in Excel, we are designing it in PowerPoint and we have been bringing it into Excel and then we are placing our elements on it. So you can see it is very much intuitive, very much attractive, and it is visually appealing and it gives a feel like, yeah, it is something, what we can say, good for look and it will be very much easy for our user as well to present in front of his stakeholders.
All right, so before wasting time, I will show you how these are built. And before that, I will show you some few backgrounds as well. So you can see this is an HR background. So we can see there are some elements on this and there are some background images as well. As if you can see, I have developed some different color combinations for this. All right, so you can see this is green, this is purple, black, and these are some plain backgrounds. And this is one which I have built for Tableau sales dashboard overview, which is a dark background. Similarly, this is one which was built for Excel. But for today's video, we will design only one. So we will be designing this particular background in PowerPoint. How from start to end, everything I will show you how to do it, how to design it.
All right, so before designing this particular background in PowerPoint, there are a few points which are important. So if you can see, I have created one, what we can say, the layout of my background on one page. And I've shown you here. What I am showing you here is because whenever you are creating any sheets or any charts in any of your visualization tools like Tableau, Excel, or Power BI, it is not that directly you can go ahead in PowerPoint and you can build your background. Right? So first, you have to bring, you have to create your own layout on some paper or you can create directly into your dashboard also. And it will be a rough layout. Right? So you first have to finalize your layout. How should be your layout? And with respect to that layout, you can go ahead in PowerPoint and then you can design your background.
So if you can see in this picture, what I have done is I have created my dashboard name. So this is, this is for HR background actually. And this, this particular layout I have not created in one go or I have not finalized in one trial. You have to do multiple trials. You have to find out like how should be my dashboard shown or how should be my dashboard laid out in front of my user. Right? What is my user requirement? What is my client requirement? With respect to that, you have to design. So first, I've created it on a rough paper. So you can see at the top, I have selected, did my dashboard name is at the top. Obviously, we will be placing my dashboard name at the right corner. I will be placing my filter. Then below that, there should be a KPI banner because KPIs should be something at the top which gives an overall idea of your business. At the right, I have replacing a small chart which will give us, which will be in the form of a lollipop chart. Then I have played some other charts below and the layout of that, like which three important charts should be shown here, then what different charts should be shown at the bottom.
All right, so it is recommended that you should show four to five charts on a single dashboard. Why? Because there should not be many content on one single dashboard, so that your charts will get compressed and it will not give much visualization or much readable charts to your user. Okay? You can make multiple dashboards, but keep your dashboard as simple as possible and as we can say, easily readable as possible. All right, so always remember, you have to prepare your layout somewhere into your, what you can say, Tableau or Power BI roughly. Then you have to go ahead and then you have to prepare that particular background into your PowerPoint.
All right, so now what I will do, I will click on a new PowerPoint file. So I have already created one and we will start the design from start to end in this particular PowerPoint window. All right, so now first thing, if you can see the size of my layout, you can say it is, what we can say, 16:9 layout I have chosen. And if it is not for you in your into your, what we can say, PowerPoint, you can change it. You have to go into the Design tab, then you have an option here called Slide Size. Okay? So this is a widescreen. If it is yours, if it is standard by default, you have to change it to widescreen and you have to choose it as 16:9 or you can choose your custom slide also and choose as 16:9 as your, what we can say, resolution for your slide.
All right, so now I will come back to the Home tab. So this is your slide and in this particular white window what you are seeing into this particular slide, everything will be built inside this particular slide. On it. So now we can see there are a few elements. I will just select those and delete. So you can just press delete from your keyboard and you can see this is very much clean. So now, first step is to what to bring our background. Okay? So if I show into my already created background, you can see there is one background image in this particular dash, in this particular background design. So we first, we have to add that and then we will add our this particular elements on there. Right? So now I will be taking reference of this and I will be building our dashboard, not dashboard, background of our dashboard. All right, so I will just select my PowerPoint over here. I will come to my new page. Already. Now, what I will do, I will go into Insert and I will insert my picture, that is my background. So the background, you have to decide it on your own which background should be used. All right, so I will go in Pictures and I will go from this device. I have already downloaded it from Google. So this is my background which I will be using. So this is the background. So it is, you can see it is automatically resized into our, what we can say, slide which we have chosen. So make sure that it is not going outside your this particular slide, whatever white window you are seeing here. All right, because everything inside this will be only converted into the image. All right, which we will be eventually using into our dashboard or we can say in our visualization tools as a background for it.
So now, what we have to do is I will crop this image because whatever text present over here, I don't want that to be displayed into my dashboard background. So I will just select this, then I will go in Picture Format and I will click on Crop. So you can see there are some options or we can say buttons available over here from by which we can crop our image. So I will just crop from top and I will just delete this and I will just click outside. You can see it has been deleted. All right, so now I want to, you know, extend my image and it should be fitted for my this particular slide. So I will just select this and I will just extend it up to the border of this particular slide. Okay, don't make it outside. Right, don't increase it outside your border. So just make sure it is perfectly matching to your border from right as well and on the left as well. Perfect. All right, so this is our background image. You can fix it from here as well. You can go ahead and fix it here.
The next thing what we have to do is, uh, we have, first thing, very much important point, the background, if we are, whichever background you are using, if it is in the, what we can say, brighter color, right? So fortunately, we have got this background which is already in black color or we can say dark color. So we don't have to do much effort on this. But if your background is in brighter color, you have to change the brightness and contrast or transparency of this particular picture so that whenever you are sending it as to a background, it will be not, you know, highlighting whenever we are creating our dashboard or what we can see our background. So just right-click and I will just click on Format and I will go in Picture and here there are some options available to, you know, change the transparency, brightness and contrast of this. So if you can go into Picture Color, you can see in Picture Corrections, you can decrease the brightness of this, right? So you can make it more, we can say, darker. Right? So if you are using a white background, you can decrease this and you can make it more darker. Right? For now, I will just keep zero for me. You can change the contrast as well. So I will just change transparency for my image and I will make it as 30 percent. Hold it. So I've changed the transparency. So you can see it has got some transparency. Right? So now we will be adding other elements onto this.
So let's go in Insert and you have to go in Shapes and I will choose a rectangular shape from here and I will just draw it over here. Perfect. All right, and select the shape. Okay, select the shape, go to Shape Format, go to Align and select Align Center and select Align Middle. All right, so what does this do? Is this particular shape which we have taken, it will be aligned perfectly from top and from right, or we can say horizontal and vertically, it will be perfectly at the center of our slide. Okay, so I will just increase the size of this a little bit. You can use your arrow keys as well to move it to left and right as well. Okay, so once again, I will just go ahead and go into Shape and I will align it better and I will align it center of it. So for center, I will just increase the size set all that. So you can see we have added our image or with we can say shape on this.
The next thing what we have to do is, if you can see here, so we have to break this image into this particular small, small, what we can say, containers. All right, so now how to do that? Right? So how to break this shape into small containers? So this is the shape which we already have. Now, what I will do, I will take one more shape and we will try to, you know, divide this particular, this big or this big container or big shape into small, small shapes which we want as a small container which will take a particular sheet into that. Right? So first, what we will do on the outside area, right? So I will just right-click on the outer area of this particular slide and I will add a vertical guide. Okay, this guide will help us to add our, what we can say, small shapes which will be a dividing element of our particular background. All right, so now, what we have to do is, if we can see at the center, you can see it is 0.00, right? So center, if it is at center, the size or what we can say, the position of that particular guideline is zero. So when we move it, you can see it is increasing the size, right? And it will be increasing its size from center. So depending upon that, you have to choose your size. Right? So I will, I have already designed, so I will place it at 12.20 for me. So why I'm placing it? Because I want this to be divided, right? So I want this particular small chart for me. So I have taken this particular, what you can see, vertical guideline over here.
The next, what I have to do, I have to add two vertical guidelines for this one and this one. Not it. So which will be my dividing part? Right? The next, I will add one more vertical line. Okay, so it will be at center. So I will just move it and I will place it at 5.30. Okay, so this will be my this particular divider. Okay, and I will add one more that will be, so one more vertical guideline. So I will be adding it for this particular divider. Right? So this particular, and I will place it at the left side for 6.80. Okay, so this will be our first, second, and third. Okay, so this will be divided into three parts and one more part is this small which will be here. All right, now we have to add our horizontal line so that this is first, this will be second and third, which will be dividing our shape into four. So what we can say, quadrants. So this is first, second, third, and fourth. So I will just click over here and I will add a horizontal guideline. Right? And this will be, I will just place it at the top at 7.8. Okay, so this will be what, this particular part will be for me, it will be as a dashboard name. Okay, then second will be this particular which will be dividing our KPI banner. All right, so we'll just go ahead and add one more grid line over here, that is horizontal grid line and I will take it up somewhere here. All right, so this will be what it will take my KPI banners. Right? Then next, one more we need to add questions which will be this dividing part. Okay, I will just make it a little down this. All right, so I always remember vertical guidelines are very much important which will help you like how your dashboard is divided. Right? You can directly not go ahead and, you know, create our dashboard or create our background. Just add the shapes. Always make use of these guidelines which will help you or which will make you understand like which chart will take how much space and then you can break it with respect to that.
The next thing what we will be doing is, now we want to break our dashboard, right? Or we want to break our this particular shapes. So for that, I will take one more step. I will go in Insert and I will take one more shape. Oh, that is again, I will take one rectangular shape and I will draw it from here. All right, so I've drawn it over here and so now it is taking the blue color itself. So I will just select it and to distinguish for us or to divide or we can say not use same colors, I will just select this and I will use some different color for this. Let's make it as white. So I will just take it as white and for me, I will just select that shape and I will choose the width of this edge 0.23. Okay, perfect. So now, what you have to do, you have to just add it onto our, what we can see, these guidelines which we have already added. So I will just place it in between. You can see it is perfectly placed in between and make sure that it is not, what we can say, the extension of this particular, what we can say, the shape, it should be not in between. Right? I will show you, it should be not like this. Right? So it should be extended from end to end. Right? If it is going outside your particular slide, it is okay, but it should be not short. Right? So I will just, I will just Ctrl C and Ctrl V. I will make one more instance for this and I will add it over here. One more again, I will press Ctrl C, Ctrl V and I will edit one more over here. Okay, perfect. So these three dividers have been added. The next thing what we have to do is we will add these dividers. Okay, which will be at this middle, what we can say, so section, right? We have, we want to plot our middle section, that is this section, this particular section. So what I will do, I will just Ctrl C and I will press Ctrl V and I want to make it vertical. So we can see there is a rotation, what we can say, option available. So I will just rotate it. So now press Shift on your keyboard. Okay, and then adjust it. Right? So if keep pressing your Shift key and then release it, so it will be perfectly vertical. And next, what we will do, we will adjust it over here. Hold it. So what it is doing, it is cutting entire, what we can say, entire slide from top to bottom. But we want to be, so it should be cutting it from this to here or it should be dividing it from at the middle part of this particular container only. So for that, what we will do, we will select this particular and we will reduce its size and I will make it as 10. Okay, so it has gone at top. So I will just bring it down and I will place it over here. Uh, so one thing very important, guys. So I will just zoom it for you. Always remember, it should not go into the upper part of this particular container. Okay, so this should be perfectly between this line and this line. Okay, it should not extend. It should not be like this. Okay, it should not be like this. It should be perfectly in between these two only. Okay, so for that, what we can do is I will just reduce its size. Okay, so you can change the size vertically. Perfect. You can see it has been catching or it has been taking its position perfectly between these two vertical lines. All right, so now we'll just Ctrl C and Ctrl V and I will press it one more over here, which will be dividing part of this and control. Okay, so these two are built, done. Now, next thing what we have to do is, and we will add it one more over here. All right, so I will just Ctrl C and Ctrl V and we want it over here. One more. So same thing, it should be, this extra whatever length is there, we want to reduce it. Okay, so select it and we will reduce its length. Okay, so that it should be between the second container only, the second section. Click. All right, so it has been perfectly fitted over here. The next thing is this particular, small, what we can say, section divider, we have to add it over here. One more. Okay, so for that, I will do, I will just Ctrl C and I have not added a vertical line or vertical guideline for here because I know with respect to this vertical line, I will just try to add it nearer to this. Okay, so I'll just take it. Sorry, Ctrl Z, Ctrl C, Ctrl V and I will place it over here somewhere here and I will just reduce the size of this as well. Okay, so you can see if it is extending outside this particular slide, that is okay. If it is extending, right? But it should not extend in the middle part of this particular slide. After creating this, we will try to break our this particular total shapes into small, small containers which we will be placing into our dashboard. All right, so now what we have to do is, first select this big container or the big shape which is in blue color, then press Ctrl. So follow the same steps. Right? So then press Ctrl and then select all the shapes or the rectangles which are in white color. Okay, so I will just select this, then this, when we have to select this as well, this, this, and this. Okay, so once everything is selected, then go in Shape Format and there is one option called Merge Shape. So select this and click on Subtract. Okay, once you click, you can see our this particular, the total which was a full shape has been divided into small, small containers. Right? So it has been subtracted this particular small shapes which we have or the dividers which we have added into this particular slide. Right? So now we can see our dashboard or what we can say the background of dashboard is almost ready. The next thing what we can do is whatever the grid lines or the guidelines which we have here, we can go ahead and delete those. I will just delete each and everything. Now we don't want this because we have already created our background. So we'll just reduce the size. I can delete this. Just right-click and delete this. All right, so now this looks clean.
Now we will try to add our colors over here. So I will just right-click on this particular shape and I will click on Format Shape. The first thing what we have to do is whatever border lines which we see on this particular shape, we will get rid of those. So go in Line and select No Line. So all the border lines on the corners. Okay, so now we have to select the Gradient Fill. We will be giving a gradient fill over here and when we go on the Gradient Stops, you will be seeing multiple stops over here. Right? So if you can see, you will be having some multiple stops like this over here. So how to delete these middle or between stops? So you can just select this and press delete from your keyboard. Select this and press delete. All right, and now what I will do, I will try to add our colors over here. So first select this first stop or the first gradient stop and go into Colors and select Black. Okay, once you select that black and make a transparency of 10 percent for this. Okay, now we will go and select the second shape and I have already, if I'm using a black and blue background, I will be using this as a color code. You can note this down and you can type it in your particular PowerPoint. So I will just Ctrl C and I will choose the second stop, going to Colors and I will just click on More Colors and I will paste it over here. Ctrl V and click on OK. Perfect. And for this particular stop, I will choose the transparency as 15 percent. And the angle which we will be having here, by default it will be for you as a 90. Okay, if it is an other than 0, if it is 90, you can say it is giving the gradient from top to bottom. Okay, if it is 45, it will be giving the gradient in diagonal. You can see at the right left corner, sorry, the left top corner, the black color is there and then it is fading out with the blue color, that is with our second stop which we have here. For now, we will make it as 0 as per your requirement. You can change the angle of our gradients. I will make it 0, so it will be moving from left to right. If you make it 180, it will be moving from right to left. Okay, so for me, I will make it as zero. So you can see our dashboard background has been created, guys. All right, so this is as simple as like if you know what layout you want to prepare, it is very much easy for you to design.
All right, so what I will do, just I will go ahead and duplicate this and we will try to give some another color. Right? So just select this, go into Gradient Fill. Okay, and here what we can change the second color. I will just try to change the second color and I will use it as a green one. Okay, so you can see this will be a black and green color combination. So you can choose any color, you can play with it and you can find a good color for your dashboard and you can use it in your any visualization tool which you are using.
All right, so now next thing is how to save this or okay. Now to save this, you have to go into File, you have to click on Save As and choose the location where you have to save and go ahead and choose JPG format from here. Okay, click on JPG. Then you click on Save and it will ask you if you want to save all the slides or if you want to save just this slide. So I will just click on just this one. So only this slide will be saved. And when we go on background, you can see it has been saved over here. Let me check. So it has not been saved on desktop. I will just save it once more. So I will just click on File, Save As and I will choose for this particular desktop and I will name it as background. Okay, and it will be JPG format. Save and just this later. Okay, so when I come to my background, you can see it has been added over here. This one. All right, so this is what how we save it. And from here you can go ahead and you can copy it. You can use it in your Excel. But whenever you are choosing in Power BI or what we can say Tableau, you have an option there to add your image as a background. You know that already, right? So this is in this way we will be creating our PowerPoint background or the background image in our PowerPoint. Right? So all right, this was all for this video. If you have learned something, if you have liked the video, so go ahead and subscribe to the channel, like this video, share it with your friends and see you guys soon. Thank you.