Death by PowerPoint

Interesting. I can't stand PowerPoint.
Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com

[widgeon13]

PowerPoint is a crutch, it's one of the worst applications of computer technology. The better folks get at using it, the less the audience learns and retains.

Originally Posted by widgeon13

PowerPoint is a crutch, it's one of the worst applications of computer technology. The better folks get at using it, the less the audience learns and retains.

I agree. I have to give a presentation at a conference next week. They asked me to provide my PowerPoint slides. I told them I prefer not to use it. They acted shocked, is if the fact that you don't use PowerPoint means you aren't really making a presentation.

Check this out:

Gettysburg Cemetery Dedication

[masraum]

Powerpoint kills brain cells. It's horrible.

I really love it when the "presenter" essentially reads the slides to you, not adding anything, just a verbatim reading.

[Paul_Heery]

A company that I worked for previously was renowned for their use of presentations in meetings. Some of the people there still call them "foils". Anyway, a few years back they studied the effectiveness of these presentations. The determination was that, in their then current state, they were very ineffective. After a long period of analysis, they came up with the following rule:

All presentations are to be 3x3. Maximum of three slides with a maximum of three bullets per slide.

It kept presentations focused and the audience retained what was being presented.

[lane912]

inbed more video content-

[alf]

I use power point, primarily for background info and then talk around the slides to get points across. It could be a picture, a graph, some bullet points or a table. I do not read the slides for them, my audience is usually literate. I put my talking points in the notes sections if people want a soft copy to view later.

[stomachmonkey]

PPT should die a quick but painful death.

One of the biggest POS commercial applications I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.

[lane912]

i do a lift cert class and this is one of my favorite slides from it

[spuggy]

Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort

Scott McNulty banned PowerPoint at Sun in the 90's - after being shocked at realizing how much time was spent in it - and they did fairly well for the next 10 years or so...

[lane912]

it is good for some discussion, which is the way i want the class to go. the power point is just a way to get things rolling.

[legion]

True story.

One day I was printing off an old PowerPoint presentation that a vendor had given us years before. I needed to create some training on a product we had purchased and heavily modified, so I figured I would print out the presentation, and write some thoughts/notes on what had changed and what needed to be added. From there I would create an outline, and then the real training.

While standing at the printer, someone on my project's "communication" team asked me if I was printing out a Powerpoint presentation (which was obvious). I replied "Yes."

She then said: "Those slides do not have company-approved backgrounds. You can't print them. I tried to explain that the presentation was from a vendor, it was old, and I wouldn't actually be giving it......she didn't care. She ended up getting some higher-up to tell me to destroy my printouts of the presentation and to send her the presentation to remove the non-approved backgrounds, and I could print it when she was done.

Fine.

I sent her the presentation. She simply changed the background for the presentation to plain white (which took all of three seconds, including opening and saving, when she got around to doing it) and sent it back to me. It took her two days to do this, during which I couldn't work on my training. And she sat on my aisle, and got up to browse whatever I was printing whenever I printed it. And as a member of the "communications team", she didn't have any real work to do other than policing Powerpoint backgrounds.

To make things even better, during this time period, I actually heard this lady exclaim: "I'm trying to add value, but I keep getting push-back!"

I put the phrase on a t-shirt, and I wear it to work to this day.

[nostatic]

ppt is a tool. Tools usually reflect the skill (or lack thereof) of the user.

[willtel]

Originally Posted by legion

To make things even better, during this time period, I actually heard this lady exclaim: "I'm trying to add value, but I keep getting push-back!"

I put the phrase on a t-shirt, and I wear it to work to this day.

Do you have any more of those shirts? I really need one.

[lane912]

Originally Posted by willtel

Do you have any more of those shirts? I really need one.

yes it would go over well at my place of employment too-

[legion]

The t-shirt is actually a collection of stupid/funny things people said during the course of the project.

One of the other gems was when they announced the new role of "construction lead". One guy in a meeting asked: "Do we get an Indian, a police officer, and a sailor too?"

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by nostatic

ppt is a tool. Tools usually reflect the skill (or lack thereof) of the user.

There are many tools used in business today, some better than others. Many of the "tools" use Power Point.

[URY914]

I love it when the presenter reads the slides to you as you are reading them and gives you the print outs to "review later".

I suggested doing something other than PP for our presentations to my last company and they thought I was out of mind.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

There are many tools used in business today, some better than others. Many of the "tools" use Power Point.

The reality is that most people are not particularly visually literate wrt "writing" for a screen. Some realize this, but most do not.

Creating and giving a good presentation is an art and also a skill. Most don't want to learn how to do it, and certainly don't want to work at getting better. Blaming ppt for bad presentation is like blaming someone who makes canvases for bad paintings that result.

That said I use Keynote as it handles text better, and has more interesting animation capabilities. I also have fairly strict rules about the amount of text I use and how I employ it. I tend to have decks that are mostly images and video, and they have little meaning when I'm not talking over them, Then again, that is the point of a visual medium - to make the points you can't with your voice.

Making a standalone deck (ie decontextualized from the talk) is a whole 'nother ballgame...

[cstreit]

Meh. I use it all the time. However there are a few rules to GOOD powerpoints.

- They are illustrations of what you are discussing. They should not be a rehash of what you are saying.

- DON'T fricken read them.


I use 12 slides whether I'm speaking for 20 minutes or 4 hours....