A grouped item comparison diagram is a visual like this: This type of visual shows a comparison of values visually instead of just listing the two numbers. This video will show you how to create these type of visuals in PowerPoint. Click the Full Screen button in the lower right of the video to make it…
Author: Dave Paradi
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don't overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.
Insider tips to creating diagrams quickly and easily
Diagrams are the best way to visually show relationships in your presentation. Many presenters think they need fancy graphic software and need special training to be able to create clear, meaningful diagrams. Not so. Use the tips in this video and you will be able to create your own diagrams that effectively communicate your message. Click…
Quickly & Easily Create a Timeline for a Visual
Timeline visuals are a great way to show chronological information to the audience visually. They work much better than a list of dates. The challenge for many presenters is to create a timeline that is perfectly spaced, so that each time segment is exactly the same size. If you have tried to do this manually,…
Three uses for a black slide; Issue #294 September 3, 2013
In a workshop last week in the Boston area a participant noticed that I effectively used black slides during the workshop and wanted to know more about how and when to use them. It is a topic I cover in the workshop, and in this article I will share with you what I told the…
How to make text easy to read on any image
Text can be hard to read if you place it on top of an image on a PowerPoint slide. If the image has light and dark areas, the text color will be visible in one area but not the other. The technique in this video works in PowerPoint 2007 and higher and allows you to…
The Globe and Mail August 26, 2013
Dave’s advice on updating the classic three “Tell Them” statements (full article here) was featured in the Globe and Mail on August 26, 2013 in this article.
The grammar of text on slides; Issue #293 August 20, 2013
Despite what some commentators say, I don’t believe that we should eliminate all text from every slide. In my workshops I explain that text on slides is necessary and helps the audience in many ways. In this article, I want to talk about the grammar of text on slides. I regularly get questions on this…
Presentation Xpert Newsletter August 15, 2013
Presentation Xpert newsletter republished Dave’s article on when you should switch to using slides in the 16:9 aspect ratio. The article is on their site here.
Should you switch to 16:9 slides?; Issue #292 August 6, 2013
One of the big changes in the latest version of PowerPoint is that the default aspect ratio (ratio of width to height) for slides is 16:9. In all previous versions, the default aspect ratio was 4:3. Why the change? Because widescreen formats are becoming more popular for projectors and TVs used in presentations. So should…
Full-day workshop for manufacturing company (July 29, 2014, London, ON)
Customized full-day workshop for a variety of employees covering planning a presentation, creating effective visuals, and showing slide makeovers of their own slides to reinforce the ideas.