Presentations
The checks, one by one
Presentations checks every figure, chart and slide as you build, and again whenever a deck leaves the editor. All 63 checks in the catalog run today; this page lists each of them with what it finds, its level and the ways to fix it. How the checks work says where you see them and what each level means.
| Level | What it means |
|---|---|
| Must fix | Holds the deck back: it can’t be published or exported until this is fixed. It can never be kept. |
| Review | Asks you to look. Fix it, or keep it with a note that says why it stays. |
| Fixed for you | Already handled on the slide, and noted so you know. |
| Note | Tells you something worth knowing; nothing to fix. |
Where a fix needs a value, such as a date or a name, the finding fills it in: the table writes it as a word in italics.
Numbers and sources
Section titled “Numbers and sources”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | Must fix | A figure in text, a title, notes or alt text that is not bound to data (number words such as “doubled” included) | Bind · Enter by hand with a source note · Not a data figure |
| N2 | Review | A source that failed, or is older than its refresh schedule plus a grace period | “Data through date”, the last load time, and the last good value labeled “could not refresh” |
| N3 | Review | Data times on one slide that straddle a period boundary | Refresh the slide · Show both times |
| N4 | Must fix | A broken binding (metric removed, access lost, a claim tied to an annotation since deleted) | Rebind · Remove the element |
| N5 | Note | A live value that differs from the last presented record | A then-and-now underline on the figure, and the drift view |
| N6 | Review | An uncertified source where a certified metric computes the same thing (matched by lineage, not by name) | Switch to the certified metric |
| N7 | Review | A period that is not complete: not closed, past the data watermark, or within the settlement lag | Label “provisional, complete to date” · Use the last complete period |
| N8 | Fixed for you | A data time without date and zone, or a load time shown as completeness | “Data through … · loaded …” in the deck’s time zone |
| N9 | Must fix | A result cut short by a row limit, a timeout or a partial failure | Aggregate in the query · Remove the element |
| N10 | Fixed for you | An approximate or sampled result | “≈” and the error bound |
| N11 | Fixed for you | A plan, target, forecast or pipeline drawn or worded like an actual | Actual solid, plan outlined, forecast hatched with its range |
| N12 | Fixed for you | One measure in several formats across the deck, or more precision than the data supports | One format per measure, by significant figures |
| N13 | Review | Elements on one slide that should agree but differ in total, filter, period or data time | Align the slide · Name the difference |
Comparisons
Section titled “Comparisons”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Review | A partial or unsettled period compared with a whole or settled one | Cut both windows at the data watermark · Match business days · Label “to date” |
| C2 | Fixed for you | The current, unfinished period on a time axis | A lighter mark labeled “to date” |
| C3 | Fixed for you | A change between two rates | Shown in points (pp) |
| C4 | Review | A percent change from a small, zero or negative base | Counts beside the percent · The absolute change only |
| C5 | Review | A rate whose 95% interval (from its denominator) is wider than ±5 points, or a change inside that interval | “n = n” and the interval · “No clear change” |
| C6 | Must fix | Mixed currencies or units in one sum or axis | Split by currency or unit |
| C7 | Fixed for you | A chart or tile without its period, filters or access scope | A subtitle generated from the binding |
| C8 | Review | A window that starts or ends at an extreme while the text claims a trend | A note with the longer range |
| C9 | Must fix | A point-in-time measure (customers, balances, pipeline) summed over time, or labeled with a range instead of a date | The value “at date” · A labeled average |
| C10 | Must fix | A ratio rolled up by averaging ratios | Recomputed from the sums of numerator and denominator |
| C11 | Review | Cumulative values (year to date, running totals) beside period values | Label “cumulative” · Year to date against the prior year to the same day |
| C12 | Review | A comparison that spans a metric definition change | Restate under the current version · Mark the break |
| C13 | Fixed for you | An unstated or mismatched calendar, week rule or time zone | “period” in the subtitle |
| C14 | Review | Compared periods of unequal length or make-up (53-week years, leap days, business days, holidays) | Per-day or per-business-day values · “length against base” |
| C15 | Review | A total that moves against most of its segments, or a change driven by mix | Segment rates beside the total · Rate and mix shown apart |
| C16 | Review | Growth across currencies at changing exchange rates | Constant-currency growth beside reported growth |
| C17 | Review | A population filter evaluated today applied to past periods (survivorship) | Membership as of each period |
| C18 | Review | A month-on-month change in a seasonal measure, or an unusual base period | Year on year · The base period’s own change |
| C19 | Note | Money compared over more than two years, or totals across groups of very different size | Adjust for inflation · Per capita |
- C3: A relative change written about a rate (“up 25%”) is flagged for review.
- C8: Read where a text on the chart’s slide claims a rise or a fall (“grew”, “declined”, “an upward trend”, “trending down”; a trend named with no direction, such as “Monthly revenue trend”, claims neither), against the same series over a longer range: the window and twice its length before it, 120 periods at most, read through the reader’s access. A window that starts at the longer range’s lowest value for a rise (its highest for a fall), or ends on its highest (lowest) reached in a jump at least twice any other step that way, is a Review finding.
- C13: Mixed calendars, week rules or time zones on one slide are a Review finding.
- C18: A change on the month or quarter before. Seasonal where it departs from the measure’s own trend (its average change a period over the two years before), and the same change in the same month or quarter of each of the two years before departed from that trend the same way, each by 5 points at least (5% of the level for a difference) and each alike in size: a steady trend, or a noisy one, is never seasonal, nor a change near zero, and when not sure, nothing is said. From an unusual base where the base period’s own change went the other way by at least half as much (5% at least for a percent change).
- C19: Money compared, or drawn on a time axis, more than two years apart: one note a chart, its annotations included, the span said in whole years or as more than so many. Totals (never rates, averages or point-in-time values) across places or people’s units (countries, regions, stores, teams), the largest ten times the smallest or more: a sign of groups of very different size, which compare better per capita.
Charts
Section titled “Charts”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Must fix | Bars, columns or areas that do not start at zero (waterfalls, ranges and box plots exempt) | Start at zero · Dots or a line |
| G2 | Must fix | Sizes not proportional to values | Bubbles scale by area · No 3D or scaled-icon charts |
| G3 | Review | The same measure, unit, grain and breakdown at different scales on one slide | Share the scale |
| G4 | Review | Two value axes on one chart | Two charts · Both indexed to a named base |
| G5 | Must fix | A part-to-whole chart whose parts overlap or are negative | Bars instead · Group the rest as “Other” |
| G6 | Note | Nominal categories left unsorted (ordinal and time categories are never sorted by value) | Sort by value |
| G7 | Fixed for you | Missing periods squeezed out of a time axis | Gaps where data is missing |
| G8 | Fixed for you | A log scale | Labeled “log scale” · A linear scale · Dots or a line |
| G9 | Fixed for you | A series that changes colour across slides | One colour per series across the deck |
| G10 | Fixed for you | Shown parts that do not add to the shown total | A rounding note; totals from unrounded values |
| G11 | Fixed for you | A line chart whose axis excludes zero | A note on the chart: “axis starts at min” |
| G12 | Review | Stacked areas read for their upper layers, or more than four layers | Small multiples · Lines |
| G13 | Review | A map coloured by totals | Colour by rate or per capita |
- G5: More than six parts, with none overlapping or negative, is a note offering “Other”.
- G8: Bars, columns or areas on a log scale are refused (Must fix).
| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| W1 | Must fix | AI text with a figure that is not a placeholder | Rejected before it reaches the slide · Bind · Enter by hand with a source note · Not a data figure · I’ve rewritten this |
| W2 | Must fix | A claim or ranking word (grew, fell, ahead, fastest, record, above target, doubled) that its figure contradicts, at publishing or after a refresh, for any viewer | Matching wording · A word that follows the data · “No longer matches the data”, the owner told, scheduled sends paused · “Written for all scope; your figures differ” |
| W3 | Note | Cause words (because, drove, due to) | A reminder to cite the evidence |
| W4 | Review | A contribution claim (“where growth came from”) supported by growth rates | Each part’s change in units and in points of the total |
| W5 | Must fix | Period words in text that disagree with the bound period or do not roll forward with it | Replace with a period token |
| W6 | Review | Unsupported words: significant, trend, sharp, nearly, about | “Significant” needs a test · “About” means within 5% · Show the periods behind a trend · Say how much it moved |
- W1: The AI drafting rejects such text before it reaches the slide; a text still marked AI-written that types a figure blocks until the figure is bound, entered by hand with a source note, or, for a year, a date or an id, marked not a data figure. W1 reports such a figure in N1’s place: one red finding for each figure. “I’ve rewritten this” removes the marker, keeping the text, and is audited: its typed figures are then N1’s.
- W2: Red is kept for claims the checks are certain of: the claim word within three words of one figure’s token in its clause, with no denial, hedge, qualifier, target idiom or other comparison base in that clause, and a ranking word naming one member; and a claim word the author tied to a chart’s annotation, which is compared with that annotation. Every other contradiction, and a claim its figure cannot check, is a Review finding (“Review this claim”), which can be kept with a note.
- W6: A trend is borne out by a chart of at least three periods on its slide, “significant” by counts that test the change, and “about” or “nearly” a fraction by a share within 5% of it; “sharp” is always a Review finding.
Access
Section titled “Access”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Fixed for you | A figure the reader may not see | A dash, and one slide note |
| A2 | Note | Presenting data the audience may not be allowed to see | A presenter reminder · Present as a role |
| A3 | Fixed for you | An export, a link to guests or a scheduled send carries someone’s access | A stamp: “Prepared with name’s access” |
| A4 | Fixed for you | A figure narrowed by row security but labeled as all rows (“All regions”, totals, shares, ranks) | “name only, your access” in the scope line and the source card |
Layout and legibility
Section titled “Layout and legibility”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | Must fix | A live number that could outgrow its box | Size the box for the plausible range |
| L2 | Review | Text that overflows its frame in an export | Fit the text · Shorten it |
| L3 | Must fix | Slide text below 4.5:1 contrast against its background | The theme’s text colour |
| L4 | Review | An image without alt text | Add alt text |
| L5 | Review | Text smaller than 18 px on the 1920 × 1080 frame | Use a theme text style |
| L6 | Review | Elements a resize to another page size left overlapping | Move one of them |
- L6: PRES-45, beside the plan’s table: read from the pairs a resize listed, while they still overlap.
Records
Section titled “Records”| Check | Level | What it finds | Ways to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Fixed for you | Publish, export, link, schedule or presentation | A write-once record of the values shown |
| R2 | Fixed for you | A value that changed since it was recorded | Classed on unrounded values |