Jon is the director of our Bureau Report Automation Service. With almost 20 years of experience in the market research industry and a specialist in our report automation software, Jon and his team manage projects of any size for agencies or end clients all over the world.
Away from the office, Jon can be found taking the work stress out on the pads at a local boxing gym. Out of the ring, Jon enjoys spending time with family and his favourite smoky whisky.
Mastering PowerPoint Automation in Market Research
The Market Research Industry is well-versed in using PowerPoint for reporting. Researchers are adept at managing its occasional quirks and capable of effectively accomplishing tasks. With over 15 years experience, our Bureau Reporting Team have been actively automating PowerPoint reports. Regardless of how complex the request, we have consistently found solutions within the PowerPoint feature set, to meet our client’s requirements.
I’ve observed a growing trend toward people using Google Slides as their primary reporting deliverable. Many are moving away from Microsoft PowerPoint to fully localize their workflow with Google Slides. As a result, the demand for Google Slides reporting is being driven primarily by client requests rather than agency adoption. Despite this shift, online support for reporting in Google Slides remains limited. According to client feedback, many users are navigating the platform with minimal guidance, often relying on trial and error. In many cases, agencies are simply reacting to client demands, without having much prior experience or established processes for working in Google Slides. It asks the question, Is Google Slides Replacing PowerPoint?
The Bureau Shift: PowerPoint to Google Slides
In 2021, E-Tabs added the ability to automate Google Slides reports. While the platform is web-based and comes with limitations compared to PowerPoint, our continual improvements have expanded what is possible with Google Slides Automation.
Below are key lessons and common queries we’ve learnt while successfully automating large, complex Google Slides projects.
Can we make it in PowerPoint and move to Google?
A common question we receive is whether a deck can be created in PowerPoint and then moved into Google Slides. For the purposes of Google Slides Automation, the answer is no. Transitioning usually breaks formatting, locks charts, and removes editability.
If Google Slides is the final output, build for Google from the start. We need to be mindful that Google Slides is not PowerPoint! It’s crucial to shift our mindset away from trying to replicate the exact look and feel of PowerPoint in Google Slides.
Collaboration:
One major benefit is collaboration. Google Slides allows easy sharing, live co-editing and smooth communication across teams. This makes the early planning and design stages faster, and supports more efficient preparation for Google Slides Automation workflows.
Formatting:
Finding things will obviously take time as with learning any new tool. In Market Research Reports, we tend to use a lot of charts, in Google these actually ‘live’ in Google Sheets and are inserted into the Google Slide template. You will need to get used to where best to format a chart, resizing in the Slides template can lead to distortions and resizing in the Sheets can impact how it looks on the slide.
This reminds me of the early days of Graph in PowerPoint. You may find you are initially doing a lot of trial and error as you build. Make sure you have more than one screen as chart edits will be in a different window, working on a laptop at the formatting stage will be additionally challenging.
Some of the finer formatting can be difficult to get right, especially with tables with many rows. You have control of the line spacing but sometimes it doesn’t allow you to compact a row further.
You may be used to zooming in to a PowerPoint slide to see things clearer, in Google you can’t use the scroll zoom but need to use the zoom inside of the Google Slide application (in view), you will find yourself zooming in an out much more than you do in PowerPoint.
Sharing and Ownership:
As mentioned above, Google Slides is great for collaboration, but sharing a presentation with external clients or colleagues will need permissions and can mean continuous access requests. One must bear in mind that ownership of a template remains with the creator and can’t be transferred to other external users.
Copying Elements:
I am used to copying charts or parts of an old presentation to create a new template, or taking parts of a deliverable deck and creating a summary report. Yet, for some reason, with Google, charts all remain connected. So, if you copy and paste a chart in Slides, a change in one chart will impact any linked copies. If you want to copy a chart you need to do this in Sheets and insert it into Slides. This will also happen if you copy a presentation, it will always impact the original version.
As part of our automation process we have developed a tool that will create a ‘deep copy’ of the object allowing for copy and paste of charts, slides and presentations.
Speed:
Beyond the initial learning curve of using a new tool, I’ve found that creating charts and slides in Google Slides is generally slower. Even with multiple screens, formatting often involves more trial and error, and once you get a chart looking right, duplicating it isn’t as quick or intuitive as in PowerPoint.
Because Google Slides is web-based, there are also performance considerations. Tasks like building automation and processing updates take longer, and we’ve noticed that during peak usage times, things can noticeably slow down, especially when running scripts or automations within a deck. It’s important to account for this and allow extra time in your workflow..
To Sum This Up:
Google Slides is becoming an increasingly common reporting requirement in Market Research, but it comes with its own learning curve and a very different workflow to PowerPoint. While it offers excellent collaboration benefits, its quirks, formatting nuances and performance limitations mean that teams must rethink how they plan, design and build their deliverables. The key is to approach Google Slides as its own platform, not a substitute for PowerPoint.
Our Bureau team has spent several years mastering these challenges, developing tools, techniques and automation solutions that allow us to deliver even the most complex Google Slides reports with accuracy, efficiency and consistency. As Google continues to evolve, we will continue refining our processes and expanding our automation capabilities to ensure our clients can report confidently, no matter which platform they choose.
Updates:
Google is constantly evolving. Features update rapidly and sometimes unexpectedly. If you rely on Google Slides Automation, it is important to regularly check for changes in behaviour, formatting, or scripting functions.
My comments here are purely based on the need to use PowerPoint or Slides for specific Market Research style reports which typically contain detailed branding, a mix of charts and tables as well as some text-based content. It’s more a report than a presentation so can be data content-heavy with strict design requirements.n analysis and decision-making rather than data entry. It’s a robust solution for any organisation looking to enhance productivity and deliver high-quality presentations with minimal effort.
