Guidelines: Using Excel and PowerPoint Together

When it comes to the Microsoft Office suite, Excel and PowerPoint are a match made in heaven. It's hard to imagine using one without the other, especially for those who frequently work with data and charts. Excel is an excellent tool for organizing and analyzing information, while PowerPoint is ideal for presenting that data in an engaging way to audiences or even compiling professional business reports.

What many users are not aware of is that all charts in PowerPoint are created by Excel. This just goes to show how seamlessly these two programs can work together. So, if you're a frequent user of programs, take comfort in knowing that together, they make a dynamic duo that can help you accomplish your tasks efficiently and effectively.

You can benefit so much if you know how to work with both these programs together, but even before you start, there are a few guidelines that will help you not hit a roadblock. The most important of these guidelines is mentioned next:

Yes, that's true, you need to stop thinking of your presentation as an Excel or a PowerPoint file and start thinking about it as a folder instead. There are many advantages in doing so:

• Since all your linked files are within one folder, you know they all belong to the same project.
• If you need to work on another computer, you can just copy the entire folder and all links will continue to work on that computer as well.
• The folder structures and paths differ on Windows and Mac computers. If linked files are in the same folder, no path information is saved. This makes your links work across Windows and Mac computers.
• If you need to send a folder via email, you can just zip the entire folder and send it across. On the other computer, unzipping will recreate that same folder.

Figure 1: Single folder should contain all the PowerPoint and Excel files that you work with

Folder Nomenclature

Other than creating folders, here's a best practice tip that will help you stay organized. Always name your folders logically. You may have your own way of naming folders but we always use this nomenclature:

YYYY MM MMM DD - Project Name

This translates to:

2024 02 Feb 14 - Cash Flow Predictions

2023 04 Apr 22 - Survey Results

This nomenclature helps because it is "sort-friendly" on both Windows and Mac computers.

17 01 01 - Working with Microsoft Excel: Guidelines: Using Excel and PowerPoint Together (Glossary Page)

You May Also Like: If You Can Hold a Conversation, You Can Ace a Job Interview | Meetings PowerPoint Templates

Popular Posts

Use Safe Fonts Available on All Systems in PowerPoint
Learn about using safe fonts in PowerPoint.

10 Tips for Pecha Kucha
Read 10 amazing Pecha Kucha tips that will help you create and deliver a better Pecha Kucha presentation.

Creating Slide Backgrounds in Photoshop for PowerPoint
Learn how to create slide backgrounds for PowerPoint in Photoshop.

Formatting Arrows (Arrowheads) in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Learn how to format arrowheads for lines in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Gears for PowerPoint (Series 01)

All these gears are native PowerPoint shapes. You can recolor them, add effects, and do more, all inside PowerPoint. Results which would have taken hours to achieve now take less than a minute! Have fun using the gear graphics, and make your audience take notice! All these gears can be rotated and resized, as required. Since they are essentially pictures, all types of edits that you can do with pictures work with them too!

Get this complete kit now, you’ll save so much time that you can use doing something else!