The big night has finally arrived, and you and your significant other arrive at an exclusive restaurant to enjoy a fantastic meal as the first part of the planned events for the evening. Your waiter reviews the menu and you realize that the entire menu is comprised of 10 item meal packages, and each item within each meal package has designed to best complement the rest of the meal. This is going to be delicious regardless of your choice.
Over the course of the 30 Days to Become a Better Monarch Modeler series many different items have been presented to help you build better Monarch models, and the Day 22 entry in the series will have you put some of these ideas to work to round out your model as a comprehensive solution. This will reinforce what can be done when you combine a number of Monarch’s features within a single model.
And with that, let’s jump right to it, shall we?
Your Task for Today
With such a wide variety of options available, you’ll need to choose carefully to make the biggest impact on the existing core model (with only extraction templates defined) by selecting only 10 items from the ideas below.
Order an aperitif from the Options menu:
- Adjust the Input Options for better results
- Modify the toolbar to better suit your work style
- Setup a custom fiscal calendar to facilitate otherwise difficult analysis
Choose an appetizer from the Report window:
- Build a navigation tree
- Build one or more project exports
- Tweak an existing template, or add one or more templates to extract more from the report
Select the main course from the Table window:
- Reorder the field layout so as to better match the requirements of another system, develop logical groupings, or match the data flow of the original report.
- Create new fields to perform mathematical calculations, map existing values to new values, allow for changing values each time the model is used, or to allow for direct entry of values by the model user.
- Create new simple filters, compound filters or value-based filters to isolate special information
- Define multiple custom sort orders
- Craft custom functions to use in calculated fields and filters and to simplify future development
- Employ Monarch’s Address Block Wizard to help properly extract virtually any international addressing style
- Import data from external data sources using common key fields between the current data and the remote data
- Construct project exports utilizing either all of the defined filters or only selected ones
Indulge with dessert selections from the Summary window:
- Assemble multiple new and unique views of the data by experimenting with unusual key and item fields
- Refine summaries to only show the top 10 or 20 values for the primary key field
- Sort summaries with multiple key fields with different sorting criteria, or sort the summary based on a value that isn’t being displayed in the summary
- Enhance a summary by formatting fields based on their values, or formatting a the key fields and measures of subtotal line in the same fashion
For an after dinner treat, along with your coffee, consider:
- Linking to objects in other models instead of reinventing the wheel, as it were
- Automating your extractions
Keep in mind that you want to implement individual features of model building in a manner that isn’t helter skelter, but rather works to reinforce the story that the data is trying to tell. You’re designing a delicious gourmet meal, not emptying the fridge into a skillet.
From Fundamental to Ideal
Naturally in the course of regularly working with Monarch we don’t just add features and abilities to our models just for the sake of the mental exercise. Sometimes we’re just in such a panic to get a model built to extract the bare bones that we overlook how adding just a few niceties to a model can essentially transform it from basic nutrition into a value-added feast.
By constantly seeking to improve models by using features that work well together, you’ll rapidly become a better Monarch modeler and your once basic data will excel with Monarch.
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Continue your commitment to Become a Better Monarch Modeler with Part 23 of the series, or review Part 21.
