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A fantastic way to persuade your audience to think about and examine the relationships between different data sets is to use charts in a presentation. To help you understand how data may be illustrated meaningfully, here's a primer on the different sorts of charts that can be utilized for efficient data analysis.

Graph including bars
When presenting data comparisons between two or more value sets, this is the best graph to use. There are two axes in a bar chart: a horizontal axis for numerical values and a vertical axis for category categories. Because the bars can be displayed vertically, bar charts are also known as column charts. Some of the recommended practices for using a bar chart are as follows:

• Color coordinate the variables to make it easier to discern the data.
• Make the bar chart's edges wavy or 3D, but don't interfere with the design because it will make the data more difficult to grasp.
• Annotate the values at the end or in the middle of the bars to make it easier for readers to compare and understand them.

When should a bar chart be used?

• Examining the monthly income of a product
• The team's performance was evaluated over the course of a quarter.
• Project management reports
• Social media engagement analytics

Graph including lines

This is an excellent tool for analyzing data trends and many types of data across time. The X-axis represents the variable range, which is usually time or length, whereas the Y-axis represents the continuous data range. Because line graphs are straightforward in design, here are some suggestions for making yours more engaging:

• Use contrasting colors for a lot of lines.
• Individually significant points should be highlighted, identified, or annotated.
• In your plot, don't utilize too many lines (more than four can make it difficult to visually analyze)

When should a line chart be used?

If you want to show continuous data, a line chart is a great option. This graph is considerably more useful when attempting to determine how data has behaved over a specific time period. In reports, line charts can be used to:

• Revenue forecasts based on data from previous years
• Examine how much money various items create.

Scatter Graph
The scatter plot is an effective tool for visualizing and determining the relationship between two sets of data. The dots on the graph reflect the intersection of the data on the X and Y axes. This type of graph can be used to show data distribution patterns and identify outliers. Here are some pointers on how to incorporate a scatter chart into your design:

• Axes should be clearly marked.
• To separate your information, color code it or utilize different sizes.
• Start the y-axis at 0 for accurate data representation.
• Use trend lines to make the association more understandable.

When should you use a scatter chart?

The dots on a scatter plot show not only the values of individual data points, but also patterns or trends when the data is seen as a whole. Scatter charts are useful for a number of things, including:

• The budget analysis of a business project
• Keeping track of website visitors and determining how much time they spend there
• The distribution of consumers in a given area

Pie Graph

The best type of chart to illustrate the general makeup of data is a pie chart. These are typically used to demonstrate how the smaller pieces of a data set are split down into percentages. Here are some examples of ways to represent a set of categories graphically:

• The percentages should be indicated or marked on the slices.
• Don't cram too many categories into the chart.

When should a pie chart be used?

This type of chart is used to compare the differences in the size of the data slices. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Describe the demographics of the people you want to reach.
• Recognize regional sales breakdowns.
• Users can be sorted by their age and location.

Area Graph

This works well when representing stacked, cumulative data series, and it's a terrific way to express broad trends. This allows your audience to compare the area (or weightage) of each series to the others. Here are some design recommendations for your area chart:

• Use transparent or lighter shade colors for the categories.
• Keep the categories to a maximum of four to avoid clutter.
• Place the high-variable data near the top of the chart to make it simpler to read.
• To begin, set the Y-axis value to 0.

When should you use an area chart?

When you wish to evaluate the trend of a single variable or communicate an overall trend, use area charts to display part-to-whole relationships:

• Website traffic comes from a variety of places.
• Total revenue generated by various products
• Individual sales reps' contribution to overall sales

Using the same chart type for all of your data sets may muddy your data and make your presentation less appealing. Choosing the right chart type to demonstrate the relationship and patterns between your data sets is critical. Keep in mind that the purpose is to provide a clear visual representation of data to your audience, not to make charts look fancy or complicated.

The average human has a shorter attention span than that of a goldfish. It’s just 8 seconds! Yet an average presentation takes 20 minutes and includes more than 15 slides. Does it really surprise you then that most presentations fail to leave any impact? Or even keep the audience engaged?

You might have an interesting idea and exquisite slides to tell your story. Yet, the presentation might still fall flat. Unfortunately, most presentation tools focus on making your slides prettier. But they do nothing to address the real challenges you face: knowing what works, knowing how well you connected with your audience, and knowing how to present better.

We do a lot of presentations at Zoho, and we understand the challenge presenters – and their audiences – go through every time a talk is delivered. So we wanted to change the presentation landscape and build a solution that will forever change the way we deliver presentations and change the way we interact and engage with our audience.

Introducing, Zoho ShowTime – a web and mobile app focused completely on making better presenters out of speakers. ShowTime brings interactivity into presentations by connecting speakers with their audiences. It helps you keep things interesting, while becoming a better presenter.

Here’s how ShowTime will revolutionize your presentations.

1. Before your talk

Start with your PowerPoint or PDF files: The idea behind ShowTime is unique. But when it comes to creating your presentations, there’s no new learning involved and hence no change in your existing routine. Simply upload your PowerPoint presentation or a PDF file in to ShowTime and get started. Now, what if you don’t have, or haven’t created a presentation? Well then, you can always create a new one from within ShowTime using our powerful online editor, Zoho Show.

Present using your laptop, smartphone or both: Have you ever felt chained to your laptop or the podium while presenting? Well, then it’s time to break free. ShowTime allows you to deliver your presentations from laptops or mobile devices. It’s easy to switch from one mode to the other, without any hassle, whenever you wish.

Turn your audience to active participants: ShowTime sets up a key that you can share with your audience. It doesn’t matter whether they are in front of you or an ocean away. They can listen in and participate wherever they be. All they need is a laptop or smartphone to join your talk. They can simply type in the key and and now become your avid listener.

2. During your talk

Give your audience a voice: Your audience can view your presentations from any device and any location. In front of you, from your office in Geneva, or from their home in Denver. They can go back and see previous slides whenever they wish to, like specific slides – telling you what worked, ask questions anonymously to the presenter instead of feeling shy or staying away from the spotlight, and rate presentations at the end of the show – telling you precisely how each attendee enjoyed your session.

Do more than just talk, interact: How about the presenters? Well, as a presenter, you can walk away from the podium and navigate through the slide deck using a mobile phone, get notifications that keep you informed of viewer-activity, project audience questions to the big screen to drive meaningful discussions and use the Engagement Meter to get a live feel of the pulse of the audience.

3. After your talk

Measure your presentation performance: When you finish your talk, ShowTime leaves you with a detailed analysis of your talk in the analytics dashboard! You can see the slides that worked, the slides where your audience spent the most time, your overall performance rating, and much more. In short, the analytics dashboard gives you a summary of your presentation strengths and weaknesses and helps you set benchmarks for your presentation performance.

Showcase your presentation skills: ShowTime also sets you up with a dedicated speaker profile page that you can edit to showcase your expertise as a presenter. This can be made visible to your audience so they know you better in terms of your skills, credentials and how your recent talks performed. Or perhaps an old colleague may just stroll up after the conversation to have a word!!

Epilogue

We believe anyone can be a great presenter. No doubt, they will need to work on it. But the right tools that bring in the right information will certainly give them the edge. Thanks to ShowTime, it’s finally easy to turn those boring presentations to meaningful conversations now!

If you wish to make an impact with your talk, we would recommend you to try ShowTime. It’s absolutely free to use. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional presenter, a teacher, a student, a soft skills trainer, a project manager or someone who just wants to deliver engaging presentations – ShowTime is for all.

Happy Presenting!

Gone are the days when file security meant locking the drawer to your file cabinet to protect your sensitive documents. As we all know, today, most of our documents are created and saved online – but are they more secure now than in old file cabinets? Well, with the right precautions, they certainly can be.

Cloud storage, online document sharing, and real-time collaboration are just some of the new document management technologies that offer businesses the ability to quickly and accurately generate professional documents that can be shared with colleagues, business partners and customers. Modern cloud document management and collaboration tools have taken the speed of business to another level. Cloud or online applications in a simple sense is the ability for users to access applications and store data from anywhere, at anytime, without having to install the application on their machines. A simple to understand cloud application is Facebook. You log into Facebook, add comments to your timeline, upload photos and interact with your friends and logout. But, the data remains on Facebook long after you logout, because the application and the data resides on Facebook servers, “in the cloud”.

While the benefits and productivity gains of cloud-based document management are apparent, the question of document security may not be. But, with some simple tips and best practices, businesses and users can take advantage of these modern storage and collaboration tools with the comfort of knowing that their documents are also secure.

So, let’s take a look at some ways to ensure that your documents are secure in the cloud:

Allow and Deny Sharing

In any business, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of confidential files that are sent to-and-fro on a daily basis. And keeping these files within the organization is the best way to keep them confidential. This is where cloud storage can help. For example, using Zoho Docs,  the Admin, can restrict documents from being shared outside your organization. This fine-grain control offers an additional layer of safety for your confidential files. Also, the admin can disable the users from publishing files to the external world. They can either choose to restrict users from publishing their files completely, or to publish within the organization, or allow them to publish both within or outside the organization.

Set IP Restrictions

For highly sensitive parts of the business like Legal, HR, and Finance, only select few members of the organization need to or should have access to certain sensitive data. As the department admin of Zoho Docs, you can enable IP Restriction for your organization, specifying IP addresses of the computers that are in your organization. So, if a user tries to login to his or her account from a computer that’s not in the organization – or a different IP address – the access will be denied.

Manage Access Privileges

It’s great to get feedback from your colleagues or even people outside the organization. But, do you really want everyone editing your document or presentation?! With the right control over your documents, you can get as much or as little feedback as you want. In Zoho Docs, as the owner of the document, you can assign rights limiting viewers to only read, edit, or just provide comments on your document. That way, your original data stays intact and you control the feedback that you want to incorporate.

Lock Your Files with Strong Passwords

Document management would be more secure if you didn’t share documents outside your organization. But, that’s not how it works in the real world. Obviously, you have to share information and collaborate with people outside your company – customers and business partners just to name a couple. Fortunately, with cloud sharing, sharing documents outside your organization can be seamless. But since these files are shared outside the organization, it is your responsibility as the owner to protect the content of the document. With Zoho Docs, you can do so, by sharing password protected files to your clients and sharing the passwords with only your clients in a secure way. Doing so, it delivers the file safely, and ensures that it can only be accessed by the right recipient. Furthermore, you can also set an expiration date for your password, so that the password will be invalid after a set period of time.

In addition to shared password protected files, IT Admins need to enforce strong password policies. Strong passwords can be your best defense to not having your data compromised. Here are few basic password policy suggestions for your company:

• Passwords should be at least seven characters long.
• Passwords should not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
• They should not be a complete dictionary word.
• Changed passwords should not be similar to previously used passwords.
• Passwords that increment like Password1, Password2, Password3 are weak passwords.
• Strong passwords should contains special characters, upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

So, the next time you share a file, or start collaborating – keep these security tips in mind. And, Try Zoho Docs for secure storage and protected sharing!