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.

  • 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

  • Comparing to two standards; Issue #388 May 2, 2017

    Use a column with two dashed lines to compare a value to two standards Continue reading

  • Showing the components that add up to a total; Slide Makeover #87

    Use a Steps to a Total graph to visually show components instead of a spreadsheet. Continue reading

  • When gridlines help on graphs; Issue #387 April 18, 2017

    When showing ranked values with a related data series, use gridlines to help the audience relate the values Continue reading

  • Makeover Monday Challenge April 10 2017

    Use an index line graph instead of a dual axis chart to compare trends in different data series. Continue reading

  • Minutes/seconds on clock visual; Issue #386 April 4, 2017

    One of the messages you may want to communicate in a presentation is a length of time measured in minutes or seconds. It may be the time it takes for a step in a process, it may be the time it takes for processing a request, or the goal for answering customer service calls. While…… Continue reading

  • Using published research results; Issue #385 March 21, 2017

    One of the most powerful pieces of supporting information you can use to provide proof of a point you are making is to use a visual created as part of research from a government agency, industry group, or private research firm. These qualified, independent sources provide third-party support to the point we want to make…… Continue reading