Creating Effective Charts (Course Id 2882)

The Journal of Accountancy stated that audiences understand and remember numerical information more easily when a CPA presents it visually as well as verbally. Charts can make complex data easier to understand, highlight trends and can identify outliers more readily than numbers alone. It can also facilitate quicker decision making by summarizing information visually.

This course covers the basics of creating, editing and formatting a chart and more. It also shows you how to create a default chart as well as a custom chart. It discusses different chart types such as a combination chart, 2 y axis chart, stock charts, funnel charts and waterfall charts. The course also discusses how to efficiently link your Excel charts into PowerPoint and Word so that your presentations are always up-to-date.

Course Learning Objectives

 By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. Differentiate between the different chart types and recognize their components so that they can select the appropriate chart type to use for a particular presentation.
2. Recognize the different steps involved in creating charts.
3. Recognize how to edit existing charts by resizing, changing chart type, moving chart elements and adding/ deleting data series by using contextual tabs menus and short cut keys
4. Recognize how to apply formatting techniques, such as colors and inserting objects such as graphics, to a chart. 
5. Recognize how to change the default chart type.
6. Recognize the steps required to create custom chart types and how to save them as templates to improve efficiency.
7. Differentiate between the different methodologies of linking Excel data and using static Excel data into PowerPoint presentations.
8. Recognize how fonts, colors, graphics, documentation and printing can impact the professionalism of a PowerPoint presentation.