Annual reports, financial plans, or calculations: Too many tables and figures often appear unnecessarily complex. In a presentation, this can confuse and quickly overwhelm the audience. In most cases, however, numbers are indispensable and even extremely useful.
That's why it's so important to impress with a minimalist, clearly structured overall presentation. Here we show you how to integrate tables and figures into your PowerPoint presentation and present them more clearly without overwhelming your audience.
6 tips for working correctly with tables and numbers in Microsoft PowerPoint
Of course, presentations rarely work without numbers. User figures need to be mentioned, key performance indicators (KPIs) called out, and statistics referenced. However, a presentation overloaded with numbers often misses its primary goal: to provide your audience with an engaging and understandable way to interpret the different numerical values .
To help you focus on the purpose of your presentation, here are 6 quick tips for handling complex tables and numbers correctly in PowerPoint presentations.
Tip 1: Only include relevant numbers
Always ask yourself whether the figures you present actually contribute to understanding or reinforce your argument . Sometimes it makes more sense to leave certain figures unmentioned because they are not relevant to the purpose of your presentation.
Tip 2: Use round numbers
Whenever possible, round numbers up or down to make them easier for your audience to remember . Instead of stating, for example, 89,230, write "approximately 90,000". Round numbers are more memorable and easier to place in context.
Tip 3 : Visualize numbers
Where possible, use infographics and icons to visually reinforce the figures. For example, when presenting production figures, supplement the presentation with icons of the product in question. This could be, for instance, a bar chart in the shape of an apple when showing sales figures for a particular apple variety. This visually reinforces the number with an additional conceptual association.
Many more professionally designed charts from PresentationLoad for a wide variety of uses can be found here . For example, these:
Tip 4: Always put numbers and comparative values into context
When you cite a number, its context should always be easy to understand . Use both verbal explanations in your presentation and visual aids in your presentation to achieve this. Comparative values should always be presented alongside the data, and the context of a number should be clearly evident.
Tip 5: Use infographics instead of tables
Instead of filling tables with numbers, create a clear infographic that effectively communicates the key figures within the relevant context. Be careful not to include too many numbers in the graphic and, if possible, use images that are related to the data.
Why not use professionally designed infographic templates? You'll find a wide selection for various (business) areas in our shop . For example, these ones:
Tip 6: For many numbers, 2D applies instead of 3D.
While 3D diagrams are visually appealing and a good way to capture the audience's attention, they are only suitable to a limited extent for presentations with a high number of numerical values. Two-dimensional representations are less likely to distort the relationships and are generally easier to grasp visually .
Especially when dealing with a large volume of data, it is therefore important to keep the rest of the slide minimalist .
Inserting numbers and cells from an Excel spreadsheet into PowerPoint
Typically, business data is collected and archived in tabular form, usually in Excel. There are several ways to use specific Excel tables in your PowerPoint presentation. Here you'll learn how to create and edit a well-structured Excel table within PowerPoint . We'll then show you a shortcut to achieve your results even faster.
Create and edit Excel spreadsheets in PowerPoint
In your open PowerPoint project, you'll find the " Table " option on the " Insert " tab. Once you click on " Table ," a drop-down menu will appear. At the very bottom of this menu, you'll find the " Excel Spreadsheet " button.
After you click the Excel button, two things happen simultaneously: The PowerPoint presentation transforms into an Excel view within the opened window. And a miniature Excel spreadsheet also opens on the selected slide.
In this " Excel mode, " you can now create a completely new table or easily insert content from existing Excel spreadsheets. This is because Office essentially opens a simplified, mini-version of Excel within PowerPoint .
As long as you work within the small Excel spreadsheet, you will remain in "Excel mode." To exit this mode and return to the familiar PowerPoint view, simply click anywhere next to the box on your slide. Double-clicking within the Excel spreadsheet will immediately return you to Excel mode, allowing you to continue editing the spreadsheet.
Within Excel mode , dark corner handles appear along a thick table border. You can drag these corner handles to reveal more columns and rows . Enter all the necessary numerical values and labels for your presentation here. Pressing the Enter key moves you to the next cell, where you can continue typing.
As long as you have selected one or more cells in the table, various options for further processing and modification are available. These are located at the top of the screen. To finish editing your Excel spreadsheet or to exit Excel mode, simply click on your slide next to the table at the end of your editing process.
Abbreviation: Copy + Paste directly from Excel to PowerPoint
A faster way to create an Excel table in PowerPoint is to use the simple copy and paste function. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C to copy selected content and Ctrl + V to paste the selected content in a new location.
This allows you to copy existing tables completely or partially and paste them into PowerPoint.
After pressing Ctrl+V on your PowerPoint slide, press the Ctrl key again on its own. Five different paste options will appear. These five options significantly affect both the appearance and further processing of your table. Therefore, it's crucial to choose the right one. Here, we explain the five different paste options :
" Use target styles ": This option pastes all copied data from Excel. PowerPoint will then format this data as a table by default. While you can still edit the table to some extent, you will no longer be able to add or remove cells.
" Keep original formatting ": All graphic attributes are inherited from Excel, while PowerPoint handles the formatting using a standardized table. The graphic elements primarily include font and color scheme. Graphics are inserted as complete image objects in the upper left corner.
" Embed ": Graphic elements are retained (font and color). Furthermore, all graphics and image objects remain in place. Double-clicking the embedded table also returns you to Excel mode. Here you can freely edit the table or expand it as needed.
" Graphic ": This converts the Excel spreadsheet into a graphic/image and inserts it into PowerPoint. While size and shape can be changed, the content cannot.
" Paste text only ": With this paste option, only the text is copied. Neither formatting, colors, nor fonts are copied from Excel.
To use the shortcut to your Excel spreadsheet correctly, you must first copy the contents from Excel using CTRL + C , paste them onto your PowerPoint slide using CTRL + V , and then select the " Embed " option after pressing the CTRL key again.
Have fun trying it out!
Should you require more detailed information about Excel tables in PowerPoint, you can find it in an older blog post:
Part 1: https://www.presentationload.de/blog/excel-tabellen-powerpoint-teil1/
Part 2: https://www.presentationload.de/blog/excel-tabellen-in-powerpoint-teil-2/
Tip: Professional table templates for PowerPoint
If creating a professionally designed table in PowerPoint from scratch is too time-consuming and difficult for you, feel free to use one of our shortcuts. In our shop, we offer a variety of PowerPoint templates on this topic:
Insider tip: PowerPoint tables that adapt live to changes in Excel.
If you want your presentation to be particularly dynamic, data-driven PowerPoint templates offer interactive visual highlights. For example, you could collect opinions, ratings, or other data from the audience during your presentation and enter them live into the accompanying Excel spreadsheet.
PowerPoint detects this change in Excel and adjusts its display accordingly. This allows you to visualize newly collected data live in no time. Due to technical difficulties, there are only a few truly functional, data-driven spreadsheet templates for PowerPoint.
Should you have any questions about the correct handling of numbers and tables in PowerPoint, or any other PowerPoint-related issues, please feel free to contact us directly. As a market-leading PowerPoint agency, we support you with years of practical experience. You can reach us anytime by email at becker@presentationload.de !
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