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.

  • Breaking links to Excel; Issue #359 March 15, 2016

    Many professionals use Excel to do analysis and then want to present the results of that analysis in a PowerPoint presentation. There are a number of different methods for including Excel data in PowerPoint. Some insert the Excel table or graph as an image, some insert them as a PowerPoint object, and some insert an…… Continue reading

  • The quickest way to create a timeline; Issue #358 March 1, 2016

    One of the categories of messages I cover in my book Select Effective Visuals is messages that communicate a relationship over time. Too often presenters use a list of dates like this: Instead, use a visual that includes a timeline, like this: When I show this sort of makeover in my customized workshops, I often…… Continue reading

  • Makeover Monday Challenge February 29 2016

    Comparing values to an average using a dashed line on a bar chart Continue reading

  • PowerPoint table alternative to SmartArt; Issue #357 February 16, 2016

    Use a table to group text instead of SmartArt Continue reading

  • Makeover Monday Challenge February 15 2016

    Compare the same measurement categories across different groups visually Continue reading

  • Making table criteria explicit; Issue #356 February 2, 2016

    Tables are a great way to help your audience understand a comparison between two or more options. The challenge is to make sure that the table makes the comparison clear. Just adding a table to a slide is not enough. Here is a slide submitted by a participant in a recent customized workshop. The problem…… Continue reading

  • Formatting bullet points; Issue #355 January 19, 2016

    As I say in my customized workshops and I have said before, I believe that text slides continue to play an important role in business presentations. Not the text slides that are paragraphs that the presenter reads to the audience, but key text phrases that give your audience context for what you are saying. In…… Continue reading

  • Converting bullets to text grouped in shapes; Slide Makeover #83

    Present bullet/sub-bullet text visually using text in shapes Continue reading

  • Sources of business visuals on Twitter; Issue #354 January 5, 2016

    In my customized workshops I often share examples inspired by visuals for data I see online from news organizations. I have done makeovers of these as well (see this article). Why should business presenters pay attention to the visuals that news organizations create? Because our audiences are seeing these visuals and expect us to be…… Continue reading

  • Organic highlighting using ink; Issue #353 December 22, 2015

    At the recent Microsoft MVP Summit we were discussing inking in PowerPoint. It is relatively rare that inking is useful in business presentations, as callouts usually serve as a better way to direct the audience’s attention to a particular spot on a slide. But as I watched what they were discussing, I realized that we…… Continue reading