Formato Charts: Building Professional Charting for Everyone.
- Kim Lippoth
- Dec 8
- 4 min read
Why Charts Matter More Than People Think
Charts are everywhere — in strategy decks, consulting slides, finance updates, board meetings, product reviews. They’re not decoration. They’re how teams communicate insight.
But despite being such a fundamental building block of business communication, creating charts in PowerPoint is still painfully slow.
Formatting takes forever. Labels behave unpredictably. Simple edits break layouts.
Everyone who works with charts knows the feeling.
We rely on charts every day — yet the tools we use to build them haven’t kept up with how people actually work.
The Problem: PowerPoint’s Native Charts Haven’t Kept Up
For all its strengths, PowerPoint’s chart engine is… well, stuck in time.
It’s:
hard to customize
hard to toggle labels
hard to format consistently
surprisingly rigid
painful to align or modify once created
Anyone who builds charts regularly has wrestled with these limitations.
Think-cell solves many of these problems… but it isn’t accessible to everyone
Think-cell is a fantastic tool — the gold standard in consulting.
It’s beautifully engineered, fast, and solves real charting pain.
But it comes with real barriers:
€274.80 per year per user
Sold primarily through enterprise procurement
Not designed for individuals, freelancers, students, or small teams
For many people who do need powerful charts, Think-cell is simply out of reach.
And that raises an obvious question:
What if the power of Think-cell were available to everyone?
Why We’re Building Formato Charts
After years of working in consulting and building thousands of slides myself, one thing became clear: Great charts shouldn’t be locked behind enterprise procurement or an expensive price tag.
Our Vision
Formato Charts is a consumer-friendly alternative to Think-cell — at just €50 per year.
Formato Charts is being built for:
Individuals who want professional charts without enterprise hurdles
Small teams that need speed, not bureaucracy
Freelancers who can’t justify enterprise pricing
Anyone who builds charts weekly
What We’ve Built So Far
UI & UX That Match How Consultants Actually Work
Formato Charts is designed around speed, clarity, and real consulting workflows — not around PowerPoint’s old chart engine.
1. Smart Overlay for Fast Modifications
Move and resize charts effortlessly
Interact directly with elements
The overlay gives you control that PowerPoint simply doesn’t.
2. PowerPoint-Native Alignment
Align charts and decorators with surrounding slide elements
Create clean, consistent layouts without manual nudging
Perfect for the “consulting-clean” slide look.
3. Instant Label Toggling
Toggle all labels with one click
Use powerful keyboard shortcuts for even faster editing
No more hunting through PowerPoint’s formatting menus
Labels become effortless instead of a chore.
4. Decorations That Normally Take Forever
Add the finishing touches without manual drawing:
CAGR lines
Total difference arrows
Connector lines
Legends
All integrated, all consistent, all fast.
5. Simple, Intuitive Data Editing
Change values in Chart Excel
See updates instantly
Labels and totals auto-adjust correctly
It’s the speed of Excel + the polish of a consulting chart.
Where We’re Going Next
We’re still early — and that’s exactly why this is exciting.
We’re releasing updates every 1–2 weeks, continually shaping Formato Charts based on real usage from people who build charts every day.
We don’t want to build it in a vacuum.
We want to build it with you.
You know where the friction is.
You know what slows you down.
And your feedback directly shapes what we build next.
What our roadmap looks like
More chart types — waterfall, pie, mekko, and beyond
Richer decorations for clearer storytelling
Deeper customization without complexity
And more…
Formato Charts isn’t a finished product — it’s a growing tool shaped by its community and if charts are part of your weekly work, we’d love to build this next chapter with you.
Help Shape the Future of Charting
If charts are part of your weekly workflow, we’d love to build Formato Charts with you.
This isn’t a generic beta program.
It’s a hands-on collaboration with the people who know charting best.
Your feature requests directly shape our roadmap
We respond fast — often within days
And we’ll keep releasing improvements every 1–2 weeks
If you have ideas, wishes, or frustrations you want solved, we’d love to hear them.
Send feedback directly to me through the add-in under “Send Feedback” in the Contact section of the Ribbon.
Try Formato Charts today
If you want to see where Formato Charts is heading — and help shape it — you can test the full product free for 30 days.
This isn’t just a trial. It’s an invitation to explore the tool, push it, break it, and tell us what you want next.
No credit card
Quick install on Windows PowerPoint
Full access to everything we’ve built so far
As you try it, your feedback becomes part of how charting evolves.
Every idea, request, and frustration helps guide the next release.
About Formato
Formato is a PowerPoint add-in built by former McKinsey consultants to help power users create slides with 2x speed and 2x quality. It combines smart tools, shortcuts, templates, and visual assets to bring the speed and polish of top-tier slide making to everyone.