Sometimes you might need to combine information from a spreadsheet into your PowerPoint presentation. Using data - or rather representing data - does not need to be complicated or, indeed, boring.

Data is usually a collection of facts such as values and measurements, and interpreting this type of material can inspire you to think of another perspective. Think of fractals - patterns and shapes whose presence is felt in art, music, linguistics and even in the financial sector. A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-sized copy of the whole of its property, and sometimes referred to as self-similarity.

The best way to visualise a factual is to think about a coastline: a coastline is a series of irregular wiggles with a secret feature. Magnify a wiggle and you find a series of smaller wiggles, which are in turn made from even smaller wiggles. One you have tuned into fractal geometry, you will notice that it is evident everywhere - from the composition of grasses, to the pattern of fluctuations in the stock market.

Fractals were studied and named by pioneer Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975 and the name is derived from the Latin fractus meaning broken or fractured. A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion. The inspiration for museum exhibitions and even mathematical conferences, today fractals have also found technological uses in applications as diverse as the design of mobile phone antennas, to efficient ways to compress video images.

Most data are results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. When you need to present data, whether it is to a layperson or to a specialist within your industry, you need to think about how to make that data interesting and meaningful. Using charts and graphs in your PowerPoint presentation is now easy and seamless. If you use Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you can make and edit charts and graphs using data in Microsoft Excel 2010 and then combine these into your presentation. There are two ways to add a chart or graph to a presentation.

You can create a chart or graph directly in the presentation. When you create a chart in PowerPoint, the data for that chart is edited using Microsoft Excel 2010, but the data is saved with the PowerPoint file.

To create a chart or graph in a presentation in PowerPoint, click the placeholder into which you want to insert a chart or graph. Now, on the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Chart. Or, in the placeholder, click Insert Chart.

Click the chart or graph type that you want and click OK. A Microsoft Excel worksheet with some sample data opens in a new window. To replace the sample data, click a cell on the worksheet and enter your data. You can also replace the sample axis labels in Column A and the legend entry name in Row 1. When you have input all data that you want in the Excel worksheet, click the File tab and then click Close. The chart in PowerPoint is automatically updated with the new data.

You can modify the chart in PowerPoint, including changes to appearance, size or position. Click the chart, then on the green Chart Tools contextual tab, use the Design, Layout or Format tab to make changes. To add animation effects to the chart, use tools on the Animations tab. You can change chart data in PowerPoint. Click the chart, and then on the green Chart Tools contextual tab, on the Design tab, click Edit Data.

Another way to add a chart to your PowerPoint presentation is to paste an Excel chart or graph into your document and link to the data in an Excel file. When you copy a chart from a saved Excel file and paste it into your presentation, the data in the chart is linked to that Excel file.

If you want to change the data in the chart, you must make your changes to the linked worksheet in Excel, and then refresh the data in your PowerPoint presentation. The Excel worksheet is a separate file and is not saved with the PowerPoint file. Pasting a linked chart or graph is the easiest way to incorporate a chart built from an existing Excel workbook, or one with a large amount of data.

Next time you are looking for motivation when creating a chart or graph, take some inspiration from Mandelbrot and think about those simple, harmonious patterns concealed with the apparent complexities of nature - you're bound to discover a dazzling way to deal with your data.