Embed a SWF in Excel

by Ryan Goodman

Often I get questions about placing an Xcelsius generated SWF inside of an Excel file. If you go through this tutorial, you will truly appreciate the single click export option in Xcelsius. In covering how to import a SWF into Excel it is important to understand that there is no way to connect the SWF to the Excel data. When you generate a SWF from Xcelsius, it is completed self contained as is not tied back to the originated Excel file in any way. All of the data, logic (Excel formulas converted to Action Script), and connectivity mapping is contained inside of that SWF. With that said, here is how you can take a SWF file and import it into Excel, though the process is the exact same for PPT, or Word.
Download Source Files

1. Open the Control Toolbox by clicking on View>Toolbars>Control Toolbox
2. In the control toolbars menu, you have an icon called More Controls
3. Scroll down and click on the menu item called Shockwave Flash Object. This will insert a container where you will load and resize your SWF
   
4. Right click on this container and click on the menu item: Properties. Note that sometimes you may get a weird behavior with this container in order to get the correct right click menu. Reference the You may need to click in the empty space on your document before right clicking on the container.
   
5. Click on the top field, (Custom), then click on the ellipse button (…).
   
6. In the property page popup, you will need to fill in the absolute or relative path to your SWF file.
7. Before embedding the SWF you want to make sure that the path you entered worked. Click OK to temporarily exit the properties popup window.
8. Resize your container and your SWF should load inside, though it will not work quite yet. As long as you see the dashboard, it worked. Now you need to embed the SWF so you can move or email the Excel file.
9. Go back to the properties popup box and check Embed Movie.
   
10. Now you need to activate your SWF so you can use it. Back in your Control Toolbox, there is a design mode button. You will need to click on it to Exit Design mode, and now you can use your SWF.