Presentation Craft: data, animation and delivery

01

One chart, one message

In simple words

A chart on a slide is like a road sign. A driver has only a few seconds to read it, so it must say one thing clearly. If the sign tries to say five things, nobody reads any of them.

Before this course: Slide Design: layout and storytelling (course 13.3.2). You already plan a deck as a story, use Slide Master, your own colours and fonts, alignment, SmartArt and the accessibility checker. Now you will add data, motion and delivery.

Key facts

Insert a chart: Insert > Chart, click a chart type, then double-click the chart you want. A worksheet opens: replace the placeholder data with your own, then close the worksheet.
Next to the chart's upper-right corner you get three buttons: Chart Elements, Chart Styles and Chart Filters.
Microsoft's advice: if you have lots of data to chart, create the chart in Excel and bring it into PowerPoint (Lesson 2).
Match the chart to the question (widely taught, and covered for Excel in course 13.2.2):

Question	Chart
Which group is biggest?	Column or bar
How did it change over time?	Line
What share of one whole? (few parts)	Pie, or a bar chart sorted by size
Do two measurements move together?	Scatter

Give the chart slide a headline title that states the finding (from course 13.3.2), for example "Walking is the most common way to school".
One slide, one chart, one message. If you need two messages, use two slides.

Example (made-up class survey, checked in Python)

30 classmates answered "How do you get to school?": Walk 12, Bus 9, Car 6, Bike 3. That is 40%, 30%, 20% and 10%. A bar chart sorted from largest to smallest, with the title "Walking is the most common way to school (40%)", is quicker to read than a table of the same numbers.

Step by step

Write the one sentence your chart must prove.
Click Insert, then Chart. Choose Bar (or Column) and double-click the first style.
In the worksheet that opens, replace the sample categories and numbers with Walk 12, Bus 9, Car 6, Bike 3. Delete the extra sample series columns.
Close the worksheet.
Type the finding as the slide title.
Click the Chart Elements button and untick anything you do not need (for example the chart title inside the chart, since the slide title already says it).
Check: a classmate can tell you the message after looking for five seconds.

(Menu names can differ by version.)

Watch on YouTube

How to choose the right graphUNDATABLE · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01One chart, one message

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Your audience has a few seconds per slide. Give them one message."
[Screen: Insert > Chart > Bar, worksheet open] "Insert, Chart, pick a type, and type your own numbers in the worksheet."
[Text on screen: Walking is the most common way to school (40%)] "Put the finding in the title. Now the chart only has to prove it."
[Host] "Two messages? Two slides."

Try it now

Take one result from a class project (or the survey above) and build one chart slide with a headline title. Show it to someone for five seconds and ask what it says.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Presentation Craft: data, animation and delivery" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "One chart, one message".

What the lesson teaches:
- Insert a chart: Insert > Chart, click a chart type, then double-click the chart you want. A worksheet opens: replace the placeholder data with your own, then close the worksheet.
- Next to the chart's upper-right corner you get three buttons: Chart Elements, Chart Styles and Chart Filters.
- Microsoft's advice: if you have lots of data to chart, create the chart in Excel and bring it into PowerPoint (Lesson 2).
- Match the chart to the question (widely taught, and covered for Excel in course 13.2.2):
- Question - Chart
- Which group is biggest? - Column or bar
- How did it change over time? - Line

The exercise I'm working on:
Take one result from a class project (or the survey above) and build one chart slide with a headline title. Show it to someone for five seconds and ask what it says.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "One chart, one message" from the course "Presentation Craft: data, animation and delivery".

Here's what the lesson says:
A chart on a slide is like a road sign. A driver has only a few seconds to read it, so it must say one thing clearly. If the sign tries to say five things, nobody reads any of them.

The activity:
Take one result from a class project (or the survey above) and build one chart slide with a headline title. Show it to someone for five seconds and ask what it says.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Microsoft Support, Use charts and graphs in your presentation: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-charts-and-graphs-in-your-prese

My notes

I learned this

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