Latest posts
Showing difference between this year and last year/budget; Slide Makeover #93
To see how well we are doing this year, we compare this year’s results to last year’s results and to the budget we set at the start of the year. Too often we show a spreadsheet of the numbers and expect the audience to figure out the result. This makeover shows how...
Ten steps you can take to improve your PowerPoint presentations in 2019; Issue #430 January 8 2019
It is the start of a new year and people often take this opportunity to consider what changes they will make to improve their lives. In this article I share ten steps you can take to improve your PowerPoint presentations this year. Step 1: Adopt a new philosophy...
Making presentations more accessible; Issue #429 December 11 2018
Last week I was working with an organization who has a library of graphics that they encourage their staff to use. This gives a consistency to the look of their presentations. Each graphic represents a specific role, service, or element of their business. When I was...
Bar charts with long category labels; Issue #428 November 27 2018
How do we create graphs with category labels that contain a lot of text? If you are comparing values to each other, a column graph can get tricky since Excel and PowerPoint will turn the text at an angle and cut off labels that are really long. This makes it very hard...
2018 Gift List for Presenters and Recommended Products & Services; Issue #427 November 13 2018
As soon as Halloween was done two weeks ago I started to see Christmas decorations go up in stores and on homes. When I was walking around Chicago last week the decorating was in high gear in the city. It is the time of year we start to think of gifts for others (and...
FinancialViz Makeover: Comparing to an average with long labels; Issue #426 October 30 2018
The latest FinancialViz makeover video I posted illustrates how to create an effective visual when dealing with two situations: first, values are compared to an industry average, and second, the company names are long. The original visual was published in the June...
FinancialViz Makeover: Comparing to an average with long labels
This makeover shows how using a dashed line as part of a graph allows easy comparison of values to an average and a bar chart makes long category labels easier to read. (this is a silent video and you can pause it to spend more time on any of the slides)...
Change indicator characters; Issue #425 October 16 2018
The difference between two numbers is a common element of many presentations. It could be the difference between actual and budget, this year and last year, industry average and our performance, or any two numbers that measure an important metric. Visually showing...
Accurate Design Ideas-like Timeline; Issue #424 October 2 2018
In a previous newsletter I showed an example of how PowerPoint’s Design Ideas feature (last week Microsoft changed the name from Designer to Design Ideas) can create a visual from a bullet list of dates for events. Here is the example it created. I like the idea of...
FinancialViz Makeover Change in sectors over time; Issue #423 September 18 2018
The latest FinancialViz makeover I posted illustrates a better way to show change in values over time. The original visual was published in the July 2018 issue of the Globe and Mail ROB magazine. Here is the original visual. I selected this visual because it...