A bar chart is used to rank values from largest to smallest, usually in a single series of data. Creating a bar chart in Excel or PowerPoint is simple, but making it look professional requires you to change some of the defaults in the chart. Here are 8 steps to turn a default bar chart…
Category: Data & Graphs
7 steps to make a professional looking line graph in Excel or PowerPoint
A line graph is used to show a trend, usually over time. There can be a single data series to show one trend or multiple data series to show trends that can be compared to each other. It is simple to create a line graph in Excel or PowerPoint but to make it look professional…
7 Steps to make a professional looking column graph in Excel or PowerPoint
A column graph or chart is used to compare values to each other. It typically compares values in only a single data series. It is simple to create in Excel or PowerPoint, but making it look professional takes attention to the details of the graph. Here are 7 steps to turn the default column graph…
3 Steps you can take to spend less time updating Excel charts each month (Hint: use a strategic approach to your Excel chart worksheet)
With organizations measuring more metrics than ever before, the time it takes to update all the charts you create for senior managers seems to increase each month. You’ve streamlined the analysis using tools in Excel like Power Query, Pivot tables, and various formulas. Once you’ve identified the insights you need to communicate, it takes a…
Zooming in on a column graph; Issue #446 August 20 2019
In a previous article I talked about giving context first for complex diagrams by showing the overall view before zooming in to look at the details. The same approach can apply to a column graph where the values don’t differ by much. Too often I see column graphs where the vertical axis does not start…
Big Data Tools and Executive Reporting; Issue #445 August 6 2019
In the opinion of some commentators, presentations of results and analysis to executives will soon be replaced by dashboards created with big data tools such as Power BI or Tableau. They claim that by giving executives access to these tools, the executives will be able to discover all the insights they need and presentations from…
Comparing actual to budget with explanations; Issue #444 July 23 2019
Comparing actual spending to budgeted spending is an important topic in many presentations. Too often the actual and budget amounts are shown in a table and the audience is expected to subtract large numbers in order to understand the difference. My latest makeover demonstrates how you can use a diverging bar chart with explanations to…
Visualizing Net Income from Inflows and Outflows; Issue #443 July 9 2019
Via Twitter I came across an interesting visual created by Nadieh Bremer to show the inflows and outflows that resulted in the Net income for an organization in their annual report. Here is the visual, used with Nadieh’s permission from her article. Here are some of the things I really like about it. It visually…
Selecting Dataviz based on message; Issue #441 June 11 2019
In my recent sessions at regional AFP conferences I spoke about the issue of spreadsheets on slides in presentations of financial results and analysis. Business professionals copy these large tables of numbers on to slides because they think you need to have design skills to select the right visual and it takes a lot of…
Showing component and total variance to budget; Issue #438 April 30 2019
A common message in financial, project update, and operations presentations is to explain the total variance in expenses to the budget by looking at the variance in each expense line item. The common approach is to show the spreadsheet of numbers extracted from the accounting system. My latest slide makeover shows how you can visually…