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…
Tag: 2016
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…
PowerPoint table alternative to SmartArt; Issue #357 February 16, 2016
Use a table to group text instead of SmartArt
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…
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…
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…