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.

  • Visibility of slide elements; Issue #337 May 12, 2015

    Fellow PowerPoint MVP Steve Rindsberg recently explained in a discussion how the visibility setting on slide elements is persistent after being set. That may sound technical, but it is actually very useful in a couple of situations. Let me start by explaining what the visibility setting is and how you can use it. In PowerPoint…… Continue reading

  • Alt Text on images; Issue #336 April 28, 2015

    Too many presenters think that if they grab an image off a website, it is OK. They may be aware that it is violating the copyright of the image owner, but they figure that there is no way they will get caught. How will anyone ever find out? I recently discovered something that should make…… Continue reading

  • What to do with text on your slides; Issue #335 April 14, 2015

    Recently, presentation designer Johanna Rehnvall wrote an article about ten ways you can avoid death by bullet points (full article here). She shows ten ways you can apply design to a bullet list of text to make it more visually appealing. I know and respect Johanna and the good work she does designing presentations. I always…… Continue reading

  • Small multiples makeover April 8, 2015

    Compare multiple data series across multiple categories using small multiple bar graphs Continue reading

  • Lessons from TED talks; Issue #334 March 31, 2015

    Recently the TED organization released new videos on their website at TED.com from the recent TED Conference. As a corporate presenter, why should you care? Because they set the bar for all presentations. In this article I want to discuss three areas you can improve based on what you see in TED talks. Are the…… Continue reading

  • Have the impact of Apple product launch slides without copying their style

    The media makes a big deal of every product introduction presentation that Apple makes, such as the recent introduction of the newest Apple MacBook and Apple Watch. Presentation experts watch the sessions carefully and comment on how corporate presenters can learn from the slides Apple uses. These commentators suggest all presenters should use images and…… Continue reading

  • Visuals that indicate performance; Issue #333 March 17, 2015

    A few months ago I delivered a webinar on turning spreadsheets into visuals because far too often presenters just copy their analysis from a spreadsheet onto a slide and think that the audience will figure it out somehow. Today’s insight comes from that webinar. You can’t just copy dozens of numbers onto a slide. In…… Continue reading

  • Showing a range of values; Slide Makeover #81

    Use a trick in a stacked bar chart in Excel or PowerPoint to create a graph that visually shows the range of values. Continue reading

  • The correct visual to show a trend; Issue #332 March 3, 2015

    As I write my next book which is due out in late spring, I am forced to think deeply about the decisions business professionals should make when selecting visuals for their slides. One of those decisions is whether to select a column chart or a line graph when showing a trend or direction in the…… Continue reading

  • I disagree with the Canadian Business article on PowerPoint

    I strongly disagree with the article James Cowan of Canadian Business magazine published today concluding that “PowerPoint is a terrible way to communicate anything important.” My study on PowerPoint usage is quoted and he uses a 12 word quote from me. By including me in this article, he gives the impression that I agree with…… Continue reading