PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Gantt Charts in presentaid: Conversation with Laszlo Diewald

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 13 May 2026 04:00:22 +0000

Laszlo Diewald has been working as a consultant for more than 10 years now. He started his career as an employee right after his study at the Technical University of Munich. Shortly after, he decided to become self-employed as a freelance consultant. In 2017, he founded his own consultancy, with a focus on large scale projects in the financial sector. In parallel, he started working on presentaid, which was finally launched in April 2022.

In this conversation, Laszlo talks about presentaid’s new Gantt chart feature.

Geetesh: Laszlo, PowerPoint users have traditionally created Gantt charts through a combination of tables, shapes, and manual formatting. What inspired presentaid to develop a WYSIWYG Gantt chart solution specifically for PowerPoint, and which workflow frustrations were you aiming to eliminate?

Laszlo: Anyone who has ever tried to build a Gantt chart in PowerPoint from scratch knows the pain – hours spent nudging shapes, manually aligning bars, recalculating widths every time a deadline shifts. And then your client calls and everything changes overnight. You’re back to square one. We saw this happening constantly and asked ourselves: why should something this fundamental be this hard?

That’s what drove us to build a true WYSIWYG Gantt chart directly inside PowerPoint. With presentaid, you simply enter your tasks and dates, and the chart builds itself – beautifully, instantly, and always in sync. Change the date, and the chart updates. No more manual reformatting, no more broken layouts. We gave people back hours they were wasting on busywork, so they can focus on what actually matters: telling a compelling story with their data.

presentaid Gantt chart feature.
presentaid Gantt chart feature

Geetesh: Many Gantt tools focus primarily on project management, whereas presentations often require a more visual and story-driven approach. How does presentaid’s new Gantt chart feature balance detailed project planning with the need for executive-ready communication and presentation aesthetics?

Laszlo: That tension is exactly what makes our approach unique. Most dedicated project management tools are built for ops teams – they’re powerful, but they produce output that looks like a spreadsheet, not a slide. When you’re presenting to a board or a client, you need something that not only communicates the plan clearly but also builds confidence and trust. That’s a completely different requirement.

With presentaid, the Gantt chart is a first-class presentation element. It lives natively in PowerPoint, respects your brand colors and design language, and is built to look polished the moment you drop it on a slide. You get the planning depth you need – tasks, dependencies, milestones – wrapped in the visual quality your audience expects. It’s the bridge between the project manager and the storyteller, and we’re very proud of that.

But what really sets us apart is how the Gantt chart fits into the broader presentaid ecosystem. Pair it with our Agenda Manager to give your presentation a clear structure, use our formatting tools to keep everything on-brand, and you have a truly comprehensive solution – from the first slide to the last. You’re not just getting a Gantt chart feature; you’re getting a complete toolkit for professional, executive-ready presentations. Everything works together seamlessly, right inside PowerPoint.

Geetesh: Can users get a trial version of presentaid and play with the Gantt chart and other features of presentaid before deciding to subscribe?

Laszlo: Absolutely – and we strongly encourage it! We offer a free trial that gives you full access to presentaid, including the new Gantt chart feature, so you can experience the difference firsthand before making any commitment. We’re confident that once you’ve built your first Gantt chart in minutes instead of hours, there’s no going back. You can get started here. No credit card required, no strings attached. Try it, play with it, and see for yourself why thousands of PowerPoint users have made presentaid part of their daily workflow.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

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PowerPoint and Presenting News: May 12, 2026

Geetesh Bajaj — Tue, 12 May 2026 04:30:26 +0000

This issue explores how strategy, visibility, and confident delivery work together in modern presentations. We begin with a conversation with David Tang on balanced scorecards and strategy maps, where complex goals become visual roadmaps that help organizations align priorities and measure success more effectively. We then shift to Nancy Ancowitz’s insights in Zoom to Success, highlighting how presenters can build stronger presence and connection in virtual environments. Finally, we revisit PowerPoint’s Presenter View, a feature that helps speakers stay organized, focused, and in control while delivering to their audience. Together, these stories remind us that successful presentations combine strategic thinking, audience awareness, and thoughtful execution.

Stay updated with the latest tutorials, tips, and news on PowerPoint and presentation techniques.

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Zoom to Success: Conversation with Nancy Ancowitz

Geetesh Bajaj — Fri, 08 May 2026 04:00:53 +0000

Nancy Ancowitz is a career strategist, NYU career director, and author of Self-Promotion for Introverts®, Business Writing: Say More With Less, and Zoom to Success: Present Like a Pro. She helps professionals communicate with clarity and presence in high-stakes settings. She has had bylines in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and writes for Psychology Today and The Times of Israel.

In this conversation, Nancy talks about her new book, Zoom to Success: Present Like a Pro.

Geetesh: Your first book, Self-Promotion for Introverts®, focused on helping professionals gain visibility. What prompted you to focus specifically on virtual presence in your most recent book, Zoom to Success?

Nancy: I’ve long focused on helping people be seen and heard, not just in the rooms they occupy, but in the rooms they want to enter. That includes showing up prepared, practiced, and intentional about how and where they contribute, with a focus on adding value rather than worrying about how they’re perceived.

Work has increasingly moved onto screens, and the rules of visibility keep evolving with it. None of us were born Zoom natives. I learned along with everyone else, often the hard way. I see smart, capable people make mistakes every day, from the classic nostril shot to the mysteriously missing forehead. That became part of the impetus for this book. The goal is to turn that trial and error into shortcuts readers can use with less stress.

I’ve seen professionals lose impact not because their ideas are weak, but because the medium has changed. Eye contact is now a camera lens. Energy has to travel through a screen. Feedback is often quieter or delayed. For introverts, that can drain energy, especially when you’re staring at a grid of faces, including your own, inches from your eyes. It can also create a more controlled, thoughtful way to communicate. With strong preparation and practice, virtual presenting becomes more manageable and a powerful way to share your ideas.

Eyelash Trick by Nancy Ancowitz.
Eyelash Trick

Zoom to Success grew out of that shift. It treats virtual presence as its own skill set. The goal remains the same. You want your ideas to land. Doing that successfully can require adapting some old skills and learning some new ones.

Geetesh: Do virtual presentations demand more preparation than in-person ones? If so, how does that preparation differ?

Nancy: They demand different preparation, not necessarily more.

In person, feedback is fuller and easier to read. You see body language across the room, pick up energy shifts, and adjust on the fly. On screen, those signals are thinner or missing. Cameras go off. Expressions flatten. You may not see your audience at all. Attention drifts more easily because stepping away or multitasking carries little friction. That means you have to build the feedback loop more deliberately and adjust with less to go on.

You also prepare your environment as part of your message. Lighting, framing, background, and sound shape how people experience you before you speak. On screen, you have far more control over these elements, and small choices can either support your message or distract from it. A simple shift like raising your camera to eye level or facing a light source can change how credible and engaging you appear.

On screen, attention drops off faster if nothing changes. You’re often not sharing the same physical space, so you can’t rely on the natural energy or subtle social pressure that helps keep people engaged in a room. It’s easier to drift. Strong virtual presenters plan for that upfront. They break content into shorter segments, shift how they deliver it, and build in quick ways for people to respond. Even a brief chat prompt, a quick poll, or a one-word response can pull people back in.

The through-line is intention. You don’t rely on room momentum. You create it. You open with purpose, re-engage at regular intervals, and close with a clear takeaway that lands.

Geetesh: In Zoom to Success, what key skills or mindset shifts do readers develop, and how do these translate into more effective virtual presentations?

Nancy: The book builds a set of capabilities that work together.

First, it reframes nerves. That anxious energy becomes usable. When people redirect it toward connection, they stop being performative and start communicating with more intention. A simple shift like focusing on the value you bring, rather than your fear of being judged or attempt to impress, can steady delivery immediately.

Second, it sharpens audience awareness when you can’t fully see or read the room. Presenters learn to pick up subtle cues, such as cameras off or only a few faces on screen, and create quick points of interaction so they can adjust in real time. That applies whether you’re presenting, interviewing, facilitating a meeting or contributing in one. Engagement becomes something you actively reinforce throughout.

Third, it brings message, voice, and tech into alignment. This builds on the foundation from my second book, Business Writing: Say More With Less, where clarity, conciseness, and audience focus drive impact.

Here, that same discipline extends to the screen. Your content stays focused. Your delivery carries intention. Your setup supports rather than distracts. That alignment makes your message easier to follow and easier to trust. It also translates directly to better interviews, where clarity and presence often matter as much as the answers themselves.

The result is practical. You hold attention longer. You recover more smoothly when something goes off track. The screen stops feeling like a barrier and starts functioning as a tool.

Roots, by Nancy Ancowitz.
Roots

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Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps on KPI Depot: Conversation with David Tang

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:06 +0000

David Tang is the founder of Flevy, the marketplace for business best practices–the same as those produced by top-tier consulting firms and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Flevy is the largest library of best practice documents available online. Prior to Flevy, David worked as a management consultant, where his clients ranged from startups to Fortune 15. David has a MEng and BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Cornell University. After Flevy, David created specialized sites such as PPT Depot and KPI Depot.

In this conversation, David talks about Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps on KPI Depot.

Geetesh: What prompted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) tagging move, and how would you explain BSC in simple terms?

David: We noticed a pattern in how subscribers use KPI Depot. They’d browse a KPI group like Customer Service or Supply Chain and find 30 or 40 KPIs with full documentation, formulas, and benchmarks.

The question they kept coming back to was: “Which of these should I actually track?” That’s a prioritization problem and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is the best framework ever developed to solve it.

For readers who haven’t utilized the Balanced Scorecard for strategic management, the concept is simple. Most organizations default to tracking financial metrics: revenue, margins, costs. Those matter, but they’re lagging indicators. They tell you what already happened.

The Balanced Scorecard, developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton at Harvard, says you should measure four perspectives: Financial (are we making money?), Customer (are our customers happy?), Internal Process (are our operations running well?), and Learning & Growth (are we building capabilities for tomorrow?). These form a causal chain. Invest in people and systems, processes improve. Better processes deliver more customer value. Happy customers drive financial results. When you only measure the financial layer, you’re looking at the scoreboard without watching the game.

We tagged every KPI in our database with its BSC perspective, because it transforms how you select metrics. Instead of a flat list of 40 KPIs, you immediately see which ones measure financial outcomes versus customer experience versus operational health. That turns KPI selection from an overwhelming exercise into a strategic conversation.

Geetesh: How does categorizing KPIs into the four perspectives help users think more clearly?

David: It forces balance. I’ve seen countless executive dashboards that are 80% financial metrics with one or two customer satisfaction scores bolted on. The teams building those dashboards aren’t being lazy. They’re defaulting to what’s easiest to measure and what leadership asks about first.

When you lay out KPIs by BSC perspective, gaps become visible. A leadership team might realize they have seven financial KPIs, four customer metrics, and nothing measuring internal processes or employee capability. That means no early warning system. By the time a problem shows up in your financials, you’re already months behind.

Most organizations don’t think this way natively. Most of the Fortune 500 and large enterprises already deployed BSC, but the majority of mid-size companies track metrics organically: whatever their ERP produces, whatever their board asks for, whatever peers mention at conferences.

The four-perspective structure brings a rigor that most teams find genuinely clarifying. Their existing KPIs aren’t wrong; they’re incomplete, and BSC shows them exactly where.

Geetesh: From a presentation perspective, how does the Strategy Maps feature improve how KPIs are communicated on slides?

David: The biggest problem with KPI slides is that they’re flat lists. “Revenue Growth: 12%” sitting next to “Employee Training Hours: 45 per quarter” gives the audience no sense of how those metrics connect. The presenter knows trained employees deliver better products which drive revenue, but the slide doesn’t show it.

A strategy map fixes this by organizing KPIs into the four perspectives with a clear upward flow. The audience immediately sees that Learning & Growth metrics feed into Internal Process metrics, which drive Customer outcomes, which produce Financial results.

That’s not just a prettier layout. It’s a narrative structure. You’re showing cause-and-effect logic, not a data dump.

Our Strategy Maps feature lets subscribers build this interactively; then, export the result. Drop it into a board deck or quarterly review. Instead of a slide with 15 KPIs in a table, you have a visual that tells a strategic story in one glance. That’s the difference between a slide people skim and one that drives a 20-minute discussion.

Geetesh: How does this fit into your broader vision, and do you see these tools helping users move from numbers to storytelling?

David: KPI Depot started as a reference database for looking up what a KPI means, how to calculate it, and what good looks like based on benchmarks. The BSC features represent a shift from reference to action. We’re no longer just answering “what does this metric mean?” We’re helping people answer “which metrics should I track and how do they connect to my strategy?”

The broader vision across our platforms is to close the gap between strategy and execution. Flevy provides strategic frameworks and methodologies. KPI Depot provides the measurement system. The strategy map and scorecard tools connect those layers.

A consultant or strategy leader can go from “we need a Balanced Scorecard” to a curated, exportable scorecard template in 15 minutes, complete with documentation and benchmark data. That workflow used to require weeks of consulting.

On storytelling: numbers without context are noise. A slide that says “our NPS is 42” means nothing to most audiences. However, a strategy map showing NPS as a Customer metric, linked to Internal Process improvements in response time, enabled by a Learning & Growth investment in agent training? That’s a story.

It tells the audience not just where you are, but why and what happens next. That’s the kind of communication that moves decisions in a boardroom, and these tools make it accessible to anyone, not just management consultants who’ve spent 20 years building frameworks.

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PowerPoint and Presenting News: May 5, 2026

Geetesh Bajaj — Tue, 05 May 2026 04:30:40 +0000

In this issue, we explore how smart reuse and streamlined workflows can transform the way presentations are created and managed. We begin with practical techniques for reusing slides in PowerPoint, including drag-and-drop methods that make it easier to build new decks from proven content while maintaining consistency across presentations. We then turn to a conversation with Mike Power about NXPowerLite 11, where smarter optimization tools help reduce file bloat and keep presentations efficient and shareable. Together, these ideas highlight a simple truth: great presentations don’t always start from scratch. Sometimes the smartest approach is refining, reusing, and optimizing what already works exceptionally well.

Stay updated with the latest tutorials, tips, and news on PowerPoint and presentation techniques.

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Reuse Slides Through Drag and Drop in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Geetesh Bajaj — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 03:45:40 +0000

Think of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations like cooking a great meal without having to start with nothing. If you already have perfectly prepared ingredients in the fridge, why start chopping and cooking everything from scratch again? Reusing slides works the same way. It saves time, reduces effort, and lets you focus on polishing the final presentation instead of rebuilding content you already created. PowerPoint includes a handy Reuse Slides pane that helps you carefully browse and insert slides from older presentations. But there’s an even quicker approach for people who like a more hands-on method. You can simply grab slides from one presentation and drag them directly into another, much like moving photos from one album into another.

Learn how to reuse slides through drag and drop in PowerPoint 365 for Windows.

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Reuse Slides in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Geetesh Bajaj — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:45:08 +0000

Reusing existing slides can significantly enhance efficiency and productivity. It eliminates the need to recreate content and frees up valuable time that can be better invested in refining and rehearsing the presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint includes a dedicated Reuse Slides feature that allows users to locate and insert specific slides into the current presentation.

Learn how to reuse slides in PowerPoint 365 for Windows.

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NXPowerLite 11: Conversation with Mike Power

Geetesh Bajaj — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:00:42 +0000

Mike Power started Neuxpower 29 years ago, which means a big anniversary is coming up next year! Neuxpower is the company behind the popular file compressor, NXPowerLite, the cool PowerPoint add-in, Slidewise, and the soon-to-arrive Word add-in, Wordwise. Mike loves designing useful software, and right now he’s focused on making Slidewise even more powerful and easy to use.

In this conversation, Mike talks about the new NXPowerLite 11.

Geetesh: Mike, NXPowerLite 11 introduces a more transparent approach to file optimization, particularly with the new View details feature. How does this approach change the way users understand and manage file bloat across formats like PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and PDF?

Mike: The new View details feature in NXPowerLite 11 completely changes how users understand and manage file bloat by giving them clear insights into the size composition of their files. This feature can be used before or after compression and is available from the main toolbar as well as Explorer/Finder.

Where users previously had to guess why a file didn’t compress as expected, View details now serves as a helpful diagnostic tool. This feature enables users to:

Pinpoint Compression Blockers: The tool breaks down the file’s total size, showing which content—such as high-resolution images, embedded videos, or hidden data—is dominating the space and, preventing NXPowerLite from achieving better compression.
Self-Service Problem Solving: Instead of needing to contact support and share the large file for analysis, users are empowered to help themselves. They can instantly see why a file is large.
Access Targeted Guidance: For supported file formats (PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, PDF), the feature links directly to guides (see help link at the bottom of the view details window). These guides offer specific tips for manually reducing file size, based on the content identified as the blocker.
Pre-Compression Analysis: Additionally, the feature can be used to analyse a file before attempting compression. This allows users to quickly determine the likelihood of a successful compression and decide if they want to proceed, saving time and setting realistic expectations.

NXPowerLite 11 shifts the user experience from a blind “try-and-hope” to a well-informed targeted compression process.

Geetesh: With both Windows and Mac versions emphasizing improvements to the compression engine, what were the key technical or user-driven challenges that shaped these enhancements, and how do they translate into tangible benefits for everyday users?

Mike: The latest compression engine improvements primarily address user-driven issues related to modern file features and third-party tools that our previous code couldn’t handle. I can share these three examples of challenges and benefits:

Challenge: Large Excel files from Pictures in Cells. Microsoft’s new insert pictures in cells feature created incompressible images, leading to huge files. Although the feature has been available for a long time, it’s only more recently in the last year that customers started using it more extensively. Neither NXPowerLite nor the built-in Compress Pictures feature could compress pictures in cells, so customers had no good options.

Benefit: The engine now identifies and compresses these images placed in-cells, effectively reducing Excel file size for sharing.

Challenge: Over-compression and blurring of Canva presentation files. Presentations downloaded from Canva (as PPTX) contained an obscure image composition that the old logic miscalculated, causing blurry, low-quality results.

Benefit: A fix to the size-calculation logic specifically for Canva’s grouped shape fills ensures image quality is maintained without blurring.

Challenge: Poor compression for Word documents with Grouped Images. Grouping images triggers a Word compatibility feature that saves each image three times, rapidly inflating file size. We’ve written about how grouped images in Word inflates file size here. Previous versions of NXPowerLite skipped these images.

Benefit: The engine now understands the XML structure of grouped images, significantly boosting compression effectiveness for these Word documents.

Geetesh: How do you approach feature parity between the Windows and Mac releases of NXPowerLite. Could you share the thinking behind platform-specific priorities, and how you see feature parity evolving between the two moving forward?

Mike: A primary goal is to maintain feature and interface parity across the Windows and Mac versions of our software. We recognize that many users frequently switch between operating systems, and a consistent experience is essential to ensure you are always comfortable with our software’s layout, regardless of the platform.

Our development process typically involves completing all work on the Windows version first. This allows us to finalize the UI adjustments that inevitably arise during testing as we identify and resolve minor usability issues. Once the Windows UI is set, we translate those changes to the Mac version, striving for functional similarity while adhering to native Mac design standards.

You can see how similar the application is between Windows and Mac in the images below.

The Mac version uses the same NXPowerLite SDK as our other file compressor apps, and we aim for near-identical performance on both platforms. While the use of various third-party libraries for file compression may introduce minor, unavoidable low-level differences, we test a standard suite of files on both platforms. This ensures that the results, in terms of both file size reduction and quality, remain comparable.

For anyone that’s curious about NXPowerLite, it comes with a 14-day trial on Windows and Mac. It’s $59 with volume discounts from 10 users and we also offer a non-profit discount on our website.

The post NXPowerLite 11: Conversation with Mike Power appeared first on PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff.

PowerPoint and Presenting News: April 21, 2026

Geetesh Bajaj — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:30:38 +0000

In this issue, we explore how what you show, and what you choose not to show—shapes every presentation. From the practical skill of hiding and unhiding slides, we learn how to keep content focused while still keeping valuable backup material within reach. Hidden slides act as a “backstage area,” letting presenters stay flexible without overwhelming their audience. Alongside this, we draw inspiration from Isabel Allende’s thoughts on creativity, reminding us that expression thrives on both discipline and imagination. Finally, we revisit the importance of visual awareness through color perception, showing that even small design choices influence how messages are received. Together, these ideas highlight the balance between control, creativity, and clarity.

Stay updated with the latest tutorials, tips, and news on PowerPoint and presentation techniques.

The post PowerPoint and Presenting News: April 21, 2026 appeared first on PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff.

Hide and Unhide Slides in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Geetesh Bajaj — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:06:29 +0000

Ever created a slide that you just couldn’t delete? It’s like a “just-in-case” drawer in your presentation. You may not use it often, but you know it could come in handy. Now imagine you’re presenting and moving through your slides, and suddenly that drawer opens in front of everyone. Notes, extra data, maybe even unfinished thoughts show up on the screen. Not a great moment. So, in this tutorial, we will explore the entire gamut of hiding and unhiding slides, learn about pro tips, and look at some caveats.

Learn how to hide and unhide slides in PowerPoint 365 for Windows.

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