How do you create reports and visualizations using presentation software?

I've found it helps to think of the type of reaction I am aiming to drive with my presentation to best choose a software. For example, if I want to wow and impress the audience, I opt for Prezi versus if I want to efficiently share information in a practical and aesthetic manner, more traditional slideware, like PowerPoint, is a familiar and simple way forward.

In my opinion, while creating any presentation the focus is to convey the msg at the very first attempt. To do so if we use any application which is easy to access (read and write) that can be very useful and effective.

I Always remember that the key to a successful report and visualization is to keep it focused, engaging, and tailored to your audience's needs. Less is often more when it comes to slide content, and a well-structured, visually appealing presentation can help convey your message effectively.The level of engagement and interaction your audience has with your presentation determines measurement of your presentation. Therfore focus on 1)Objectives , 2) Thought Clarity and Simplicity, 3) Engaging & Appropriate Visual, 4)Visual Hierarchy, 5)Narrative Flow

I would prefer Microsoft PowerPoint over google slides. It excels with rich features, offline access, industry-standard compatibility, and seamless integration with other Office apps. It offers advanced data visualization, privacy controls, and customization options. While Google Slides offers collaboration, PowerPoint has caught up with real-time editing. I prefer it for its versatility, especially in professional settings. PowerPoint provides more advanced text formatting and editing options, making it easier to fine-tune your content. PowerPoint includes tools like Presenter View, which offers a dedicated view for speakers, with notes and annotations, making it easier to deliver engaging presentations.

There are plenty of tools available open-source, freemium, paid these days to represent what you want to showcase. Points to be followed is: 1. Keep it simple. 2. Focus more on tools you are familiar with. 3. Up skill yourself time to time as per your job requirements. 4. Understand what you are creating and how simply it can be put into interactive visual.

Be really clear in the presentation - have an objective/purpose slide where this is clearly called out. If a decision needs to be taken, ensure that ask is distinctly stated to ensure it is apparent to all members of the audience as they move forward.

A proper research in the event is appropriate and consulting others who might experience in the field. Consulting other document like national survey on the topic give you the most and accurate data.

Data visualisations are a double edged blade: they can show clearly the insight in your data, but they can also confuse your audience. Therefore, I give 3 recommendations 1. Use only the most simple ones (don't go into spider radar ultra complex graph) 2. Declutter your graph (default options always have too much information like grids, labels, axis,...) 3. Differentiate visually the data point you want to highlight

Try to use grey monotones when you are using graphs and highlight only the one you want your audience to focus on in color. This visually guides your audience to correlate to the key point you are trying to make. E.g: xx is the highest sales this quarter - color only xx bar on the graph. the rest of the graph can be shades of grey to differentiate between different data points.

It generally helps to sketch out a story or narrative as an outline and building an agenda around it before fleshing out actual slides. This ensures that the organization and flow leads to the logical conclusion that I am aiming to reach through this presentation.

Here's a tip from me: Usually, I like to create the first slide as the outline, where I list (literally like a laundry list) what questions, and content I need to answer or gather more data on, to tell the story of my topic. This guides the rest of the content, I usually delete this slide later on. This slide acts as my guiding light as I build my slides.

I feel it's more related to personalization or topic you are creating your presentation on. If you are creating your sales pitch you should put things about your organisation, your strength, how you do things, industries you work with, your footprints, partners you have transformed, case study and thank you with contact details. Similarly each presentation would require a specific story to be told, flow to be followed, text images or data to be used.

PowerPoint recently added in a new feature that supports rehearsing presentations and offers feedback! It's still in nascent stages but I find it quite useful to have another set of ears.

I believe this part is key and can often be overlooked. Many presentations have a beautiful design, heaps of work put into them, great quality information...BUT are a) extremely long or b) not engaging enough. a) In my experience, in terms of time, less is more. It must always be taken into account that many studies indicate the attention spam of an adult is around 20 minutes. If the presentation does not fit in 20min, then maybe breaking it into two 20-min chunks, with some activity or break in the middle allows the audience to rest and refocus. b) In terms of engagement, I believe writing your notes like you'd speak, instead of speaking the way you write, is the best way to go to engage your audience.

Audiences generally prefer short and pithy presentations, so aim to keep presentations to a maximum of 10 slides and leave time at the end for Q&A and discussions. If there is additional content, make use of an appendix section linked to the main 10 slides to answer questions when asked.