Comments on: Death by PowerPoint

By: David Rodgers » Blog Archive » Please Stop Giving Crappy Presentations

David Rodgers » Blog Archive » Please Stop Giving Crappy Presentations — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:11 +0000

[...] I’m far from the first person to write about bad PowerPoint presentations. Some people aren’t listening to these posts, so I’m going to attempt a new tactic.Ahem. [...]

By: World changing presentations « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub

World changing presentations « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:28:11 +0000

[...] Angry 365-days-a-year nails some of the problems, in “Death by PowerPoint.” If nothing else, go there to see what NOT to do. In the past five years I’ve had to grade dozens of such presentations by students, and in each and every one I have advised the students to reduce the amount of verbiage on the slide, increase the type size, and simplify, simplify, simplify. In most of the cases, I have had to struggle to extract from the student and presentation just what the key idea was — the students seem to think the key idea is to get as many words on a slide as possible, and use every one of the animation schemes available to make the words dance incomprehensibly. Mr. Angry might agree that these are the people who too often get promoted to management, and should not. [...]

By: Robert Moir

Robert Moir — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:41:25 +0000

Death by PowerPoint is a cousin to the sort of things you see when someone fires up a child’s desktop publishing app like Publisher for the first time, or when Nutscrape’s first WYSIWYG editors for HTML started to appear. People assume that because all the features are there that they HAVE to use them.

Some folks have probably seen this already but I’ll mention it just in case:
http://www.beyondbullets.com/

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:27:51 +0000

With a few shades of difference, I think we share a common view – PP isn’t evil by definition but it’s capable of perpetrating great evil when used wrongly. It’s simply a tool and and tool can be used well or poorly. A hammer and chisel can be used to create Michelangelo’s “David” but in unskilled hands, a hammer and chisel is more likely to inflict a debilitating injury.

For me, the danger rises when the presentation is driven by the tool rather than the tool being used to enhance a presentation. “To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

By: Suresh Gundappa

Suresh Gundappa — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:39:31 +0000

I have spent so much time in my consulting career on Presentations- What the hell I can say I know ppt’s better than how much I know about my wife!. Crazy if u think how our lives are tangled around one software.

By: Ted Haeger

Ted Haeger — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:32:18 +0000

[I use OpenOffice.org Impress, which is still presentation software, although somewhat less sophisticated. Also, less laden with feature bloat, such as complex animations and sound effects. I state this up front because I don't want any misinterpretation of the following statement to be either a defense of or a compliment to PowerPoint.]

Even a Stradivarius sounds horrible in most people’s hands. But when you encounter someone using it well, the results are amazing.

By: Robert - SCIL

Robert - SCIL — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 13:09:10 +0000

I attended a ‘training the trainer’ course where the 1st presentation lasted 2 and a half hours and consisted of over 100 overheads. As Roland says, its not the technology that is the problem, its the trainer.

I use Powerpoint all the time but I get concerned if it gets above 5 slides and I never use sound effects or moving graphics. Sometimes I will put a relevant photo or diagram into a slide.

Keep to the key points – thats my advice

By: Roland

Roland — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:36:54 +0000

Do you remember what we had before PowerPoint, bad slide presentations or worse presentations with no graphics?

Bad presentations are bad presentations and PowerPoint does not cure that problem nor does it make them worse.

As the Budishs say, “Do not confuse the finger with the Moon that it points toward”.

By: Powerpoint « The title can be changed later, right?

Powerpoint « The title can be changed later, right? — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 04:40:46 +0000

[...] This is to be fixed, and turned into a coherent rant on PowerPoint and its ilk. This set me off (reminded me, rather) by occurring (in top place) in Hot Posts Today. Peter Norvig has created an excellent example, and has some words to say. There’s another example too. The Wikipedia article has some things to say. The most comprehensive listing, by far, is at Sooper. One day (when I “get the time”), this will be a good and proper rant, but not right now. [...]

By: Maryam

Maryam — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 03:55:54 +0000

and ofcourse, its not the presentation as much as the presenter?
i’ve used powerpoint quite effectively at times but what makes the presentation is Me, not the slides. i’ve used the same principle with my dad when has to do presentations at school, we’re both keen speakers so it works out.

the other useful way of using powerpoint is if you’re doing a test/quiz and the audience has a handout of it. also auseful way to show ppl how to fill things in