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.

  • Diverging Stacked Bar Charts; Issue #310 April 29, 2014

    When I first heard the name of this visual, diverging stacked bar chart, it seemed complex. As I learned more about it, I realized how valuable it is to know about this type of visual in business presentations. In this article I want to show you what this visual is and how you can use…… Continue reading

  • 2 Big Mistakes Professionals make using Excel data in PowerPoint

    After you view these slides, read this page with advice on presenting financial information effectively. [sc:slideshare_2BigMistakes ] Continue reading

  • Creating a graph in PowerPoint from data in Excel

    If you want to create a graph for your PowerPoint slide using data from Excel, you have two choices. You can create the graph in Excel and link it to your slide using one of the methods in this article. Or you can create the graph in PowerPoint using the data from Excel. Don’t re-type…… Continue reading

  • Creating slides that print well in B&W; Issue #309 April 15, 2014

    One of the participants at last Thursday’s workshop asked how the colorful charts and visuals I was showing would work when printed in grayscale on a black and white laser printer. For those who usually present with printed slides instead of projecting them on a screen, this is a real concern. Here is the issue…… Continue reading

  • Improving some graphs from Copyblogger’s State of Native Advertising report

    I follow copyblogger.com because I find their information useful to my business. Yesterday they released a report on the state of native advertising (here is the full report). It doesn’t matter whether you know what that is (I didn’t initially). I want to explain why two of the graphs showing the results of their survey…… Continue reading

  • Linking a graph in PowerPoint to the Excel data so the graph can automatically update when the Excel worksheet changes

    You probably arrived at this page because you are a business professional who has to present regularly to management or executives on analysis you have done in Excel. You don’t want to have to retype a table of numbers or recreate a graph in PowerPoint. Not only is that time you don’t have, but it…… Continue reading

  • Waterfall Graphs; Issue #308 April 1, 2014

    One of the examples you see in this video on what people will learn in my workshops on presenting financial and operational data to executives, is a waterfall graph being used to show the components of the change between a starting value and an ending value. After I showed an example of a waterfall graph…… Continue reading

  • City A.M. March 24, 2014

    Dave’s Annoying PowerPoint survey and calculation of how much poor PowerPoint presentations cost organizations is used in this article titled “Four presentation mistakes to avoid” in City A.M. (UK) Continue reading

  • Using Excel Data in a PowerPoint Presentation

    Since the topic of presenting financial or operational data calculated in Excel is so popular, I put together this page to bring together my best articles and resources to help professionals use Excel data in a PowerPoint presentation. Continue reading

  • Numbers only measure a story; Issue #307 March 18, 2014

    Why do presenters use so many spreadsheets and tables of numbers in their presentations? The answer I get from participants in my workshops is that the numbers and analysis are important. The audience needs to see all the numbers. In this article I want to explain why I think that the numbers are not as…… Continue reading