Latest posts

Below are the most recent articles or resources I’ve published. If you are looking for help on a specific topics, it would best to look at the topics in my Articles archive as I have grouped my recent and best articles by topic there.

  • Proportion visual using characters; Issue #395 August 8, 2017

    Use ISOTYPE or group of items visuals to show proportion of the whole Continue reading

  • Will replacing presentations with interactive visual dashboards help executives make decisions?

    Recently I have seen more emphasis on creating interactive visual dashboards for executives in products such as Tableau and Power BI. These dashboards allow executives to visually play with graphs based on underlying data. They can apply filters for time periods, products, geographic regions, and many other dimensions. They can position their cursor on a…… Continue reading

  • Executive Summary slide; Issue #394 July 25, 2017

    Create an Executive Summary at the start of your presentation using text organized in shapes Continue reading

  • Showing a trend and comparing current value to last Q and last Y; Slide Makeover #88

    Use a line graph instead of a column graph to show both the trend and comparisons to previous values. Continue reading

  • Replace stacked column graphs; Issue #393 July 11, 2017

    Focus the audience on the comparison of the values in the important segments in a stacked column graph Continue reading

  • GPS for Presentations: A structured approach to planning presentations with a clear message and focused content

    Most presenters don’t use a structured approach to planning their presentations. They start by grabbing slides from presentations they and their colleagues have done in the past. They try to organize these slides into a coherent message and struggle to do so. The result is often an overload of information that doesn’t flow well. The…… Continue reading

  • Lessons for presenters from MOD Pizza; Issue #392 June 27, 2017

    In February when my wife and I were on vacation in Tucson, AZ, someone recommended that we check out a restaurant nearby called MOD Pizza. Whenever you can get a recommendation from a local person, it usually works out well. This was no exception. We ended up going twice while we were in the area.…… Continue reading

  • Group text in shapes instead of bullets; Issue #391 June 13, 2017

    Make groups of text visual by putting them in shapes Continue reading

  • Design advice corporate presenters can ignore; Issue #390 May 30, 2017

    I am friends with many professional presentation designers. They do great work. If you want to hire a presentation designer, check out the Presentation Guild at www.PresentationGuild.org. These professionals understand the needs of corporate presenters. Why do I recommend these professionals and not just any designer? Because there is advice from some designers that you…… Continue reading

  • Alternative to Excel conditional formatting; Issue #389 May 16, 2017

    Excel has a great feature called conditional formatting that can save you time in making the results of analysis more visual. In particular, Excel can automatically add an up or down triangle to cells depending on their value. This makes reporting on the difference between a current and previous period value more visual. Here is…… Continue reading