Today, let's improve our chart-making abilities. Let's take a cue from The Economist. They have a clear and stylish approach. We can apply the techniques to make great Excel visuals for corporate reports.

Also discover:

• Outlook's outlook
• New Planner in Teams
• Power BI Quick Start

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🎬 Corporate Charts Inspired by The Economist

When I speak to controllers about the charts they use in corporate reports, I usually get:

"Nothing special. Just column, bar and line charts - but I wish I could create charts like The Economist".

They look at me weird when I say "You can... in Excel".

After a short pause, I get: "Ah, but that would be very manual".

My response, "Absolutely not! Let me show you".

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And here it is! In my latest video I replicate 3 charts from The Economist that would fit well in any corporate report. Plus, they are dynamic. You set it up once and you can re-use as many times as you'd like.

Here are my inspirations:

At first glance, it's a pretty standard 100% stacked bar chart. But notice the titles for each category are on the top and not on the side of each bar.

This way, the chart's more compact, taking up less space but also the numbers in each category aren't intended to be compared with each other.

By putting the titles on the top, we break it up, eliminating the temptation. The viewer is more likely to consider each category individually.

Dumbbell charts are great when you want to emphasize change between 2 different periods. The chart is clean and straightforward. It's easy to see the direction of the trend and the size of the shift for each category.

It's a great way to show how things change over time, even without numbers. The colors match The Economist's style and clearly highlight the growing trend. The visual tells a story.

The Economist charts are clear, concise, and consistent.

They achieve this by:

• minimal visual distractions - the focus is on the data,
• strategic use of color to guide attention to trends, outliers, or comparisons,
• critical insights often annotated directly on the charts,
• clear and informative titles.

Their charts strike a balance between visual appeal and functionality. All the chart elements work to enhance the understanding of the data.

Why not take cue from the best when designing your corporate reports. 😁

In my version, we recreate these in a dynamic way so you plug in the data and the chart is updated automatically.

I cover these tips - and many more - in my upcoming Business Charts course.

Join our 👉 interest list and be the first to know when it launches to grab the early bird discount.

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💚 Excel Summit Recordings

Have you missed the Global Excel Summit in February?
Good news! You can now purchase the recorded sessions to watch on demand.

The Conference Package has all the main stage and online sessions. It includes my opening keynote as well as my webinar postponed to this week.

It's over 21 hours of footage, with impressive speakers covering a range of Excel and Power BI topics. You can learn about AI, data analytics & visualization, financial modelling, and more.

With the recording comes a certificate of completion and 21 CPD points.

You can also buy the recorded Masterclasses from 3 renowned Excel experts.

Follow 👉 this link to get the recordings.

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🤓 Geeky News

📧 Timeline for New Outlook

Microsoft recently published a timeline of product availability for the new web-based Outlook experience.

They've been rolling it out in stages - so far to very little enthusiasm. We're currently in the Opt-in Preview stage.

You probably noticed the "Try the new Outlook" toggle in the top right corner of Outlook. Most of those who tried it, quickly switched back. Many basic features are still missing.

Microsoft promises at least a 12-months notice before new Outlook becomes the default (the Opt-out stage) and only (Cutover) option.

The good news is that the "classic" Outlook will be supported until at least 2029. But it likely won't be getting any new features.

☑️ New Planner in Teams

The Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams becomes the new Microsoft Planner. It's now in Teams Public Preview.

It combines To Do, Planner and Microsoft Project in one simple work management tool.

Features include streamlined navigation and a unified view of tasks. You can switch between My Day, My Tasks (which include task source and handy filters), and My Plans.

The premium plan provides some advanced capabilities, including Copilot integration.

📊 Power BI Tables in Excel Online

Some time ago, Excel Desktop got the ability to connect to Power BI datasets and create tables. It's one of the 4 methods of live connection between Excel and Power BI. I covered all of them in this video.

Now connected tables are available in Excel Online as well. You'll find it on the Data tab, in the Get & Transform group. (It's not very crowded, since Excel Online doesn't currently support any Power Query connectors.)

When you select "Data from Power BI", it looks for the datasets you have access to. You can then Insert a PivotTable or a Table. Build a table with the fields in your data, and refresh it when needed.

Power BI can serve as the single source of truth for your organization, but you can still take advantage of the Excel grid.

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👏 Power Stories

Thank you, Stanislav, for this glowing review. And congratulations on successfully completing Fast Track to Power BI.

Not quite ready to take Stanislav's advice and enroll in the full, 11-hour Power BI course?

Perhaps you're short on time.

Or you're not sure if Power BI would be useful for you.

Good news! We've put together a FREE QuickStart Power BI course.

It's a hands-on introduction condensed to a little over an hour.

Choose your pace: spread it across four days with 20-minute sessions or immerse yourself in one sitting.

Discover what Power BI does and how it works. Then take what you've learnt and apply it.

Find out what the hype is all about 👉 Power BI Free Course Signup.

See you next week,

Leila

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