Having a hard time figuring out how to present data and information to your audience?
As a consultant, you are well aware that data drives the world. It has the power to make or break the insightful solution you present to your client.
And as a narrator of the story behind your data, charts are the tools you seek every time. They are visual, intuitive, communicate well and help make crucial decisions. And…they make your job, as a presenter, easier.
Charts in Microsoft Office have always been an integral part of the suite. And thanks to the developers at Microsoft, each subsequent edition has seen newer and better versions. It is advisable though to have an Office 365 subscription so that you can upgrade to new features automatically.
How to Visualize Charts for Corporate Presentations the Right Way: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Here’s a quick look at these six additions to the chart bucket of the new and improved Office 2016.
Treemap Chart
Visualize computational information and display hierarchical data. A treemap chart is a hierarchical graph. Rectangles represent the treemap's branches. Larger rectangles represent the top categories of your data each with a different color. The subcategories within the data are shown as smaller rectangles.
Funnel Chart
Perfect to demonstrate the progress of a process that passes through different phases. Eg., a classic sales funnel. The Funnel chart is used to show the gradual reduction of data as it moves from one stage to another. It helps in displaying data in decreasing proportional such as a chart for the sales pipeline.
Sunburst Chart
Out of the box visualization of hierarchical data. The sunburst chart is ideal for displaying hierarchical data. A ring or circle represents a hierarchy level with the innermost circle as the top level.
A sunburst chart with just a single level and no hierarchy is similar to a doughnut chart. However, a sunburst chart with multiple levels of categories looks like concentric circles which present how the outer rings are related to the inner rings.
Waterfall Chart
A simple solution to visualizing financial statements. Also, used to present a steady increment or decrement of numerical values in the data.
Download eBook for a detailed discussion on each of the New Chart Types in Office 2016
Box and Whisker Chart
Used in statistical analysis to compare results or test scores. Also, useful in graphically depicting groups of numerical data through their quartiles.
Histogram Chart
To measure the frequency of category, compare results and as a tool in decision making. Histogram chart would be a good option to show data are being distributed.
All in all, six new chart types have been added to MS Office 2016!
Each of the six charts has long been on the wish list of analysts, researchers and business developers alike. And they couldn’t have come at a better time.
In earlier versions, users had to first enable the Analysis ToolPak add-in to use some of these charts. But now, these amazing charts are the default and ready-to-use features.
So visualizing data need no longer take you unnecessary time and in some cases, imagination (read: patience)!
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