POWERPOINT SUCKS

I've been getting a slew of P.P. greeting cards lately. They're scary. They take over my computer like a virus on acid.

I kept getting email I couldn't read, until I finally downloaded a Power Point Viewer. What's the point in using it?

I think it was developed for mid-level management because they kept forgetting how to use the slide projector.

There have been some studies (i'll try and dig some references up in the a.m.) about how people understand less after powerpoint presentations than they do when the same info is presented in less 'sound-bitey' ways. As I recall it, one of the problems had to do with the presenters really only knowing what the points say - not what they mean.

So much time is spent distilling information, that no one knows what the original information is.

I was part of a group that had to put together a presentation on improving maintenance effiiciency for a particular piece of equipment. Powerpoint made it a lot easier to arrange the presentation (for a group of people who'd never done this stuff before), and we got very high praise for the results.

That's good to hear Wilso. I'm afraid I was a little smug in my post. I really have no business discussing power point.

Am part of research peer review group. All the project reprts were done with Powerpoint and none of us understood any features or had enough information from the presentations. It distille the creativity right out.
I understand that DOD has banned its use for subordinate briefings because theres no substance and people just read their slidews.

Thomas posted a link from somewhere about what the Gettysburg address would l;ook like if Lincoln did it in Powewrpoint.It was hugely funny,, and sad.

I don't mind if PP is used as a small adjunct to a presentation, perhaps offered as a summary toward the end. It is definitely not a tool I would recommend to anyone who is seriously hoping to teach adults anything. I believe you're right about it being banned in some organizations, farmerman. I've read something like that in an adult ed journal.

PowerPoint
Someone sent me pictures of paintings, but I couldn't open them until I downloaded Powerpoint which was a nuisance, because I haven't had any use for it since, nor do I ever expect to.

I have to thank Thomas (who was the inspiration for this thread) who posted a link whherein Lincoln was attributed to have presented the Gettysburg Address as a powerpoint presentation

LINCOLNS GETTYSBURG ADDRESS IN POWERPOINT

It would be funny if it werent sad how a tool like powerpoint has been adopted and now serves a purpose to stifle communication and creativity.
Theres a fellow from Yale,Edward Tufte, whos been called "The Leonardo of data" Hes the author of a book The Visual Display of Information, Visualizing Information,andVisual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence, and Narrative
His main message is "Good Content is Critical for Good Presentations, but Poor Display of the Information, Kills the Presentation"
HEs been a major critic of the valuelessness of Powerpoint when it comes to presenting math and science data. An average graph in SCience has about one thousand data points in it. An average graph in the Wall STreet Jounal, a hundred. A typical Powerpoint slide has 12 data points according to Tuftes.
Powerpoint forces a lame structure on the presentation, a structure that causes a loss of clarity. An example was the Powerpoint presentation that NASA used to analyze the Columbia disaster.All the conclusions were lost in the oversimplification that Powerpoint forced to the presentation. Noone could glean what caused the disaster , so rteporters pretty much dragged bullet points and wrote around them , with often comical results.
Powerpoint reduces the content of a presentation to its lowest common denominator. Thats why the Norvig take on the Gettysburg Address is a worthhy display of how a great speech could have been turned to some beurocratic garbage.
Tufte does say that theres a good use of Powerpoint,as a slide projector of low res pictures that (he says) should be accompanied by paper handouts that explain the images.

I work on Powerpoint all day for a finance company. It is without a doubt, the least intuitive piece of **** software anyone has ever come up with, and one of the main reasons why Bill Gates should be strung up by his balls and lit on fire.

Surprising comments abt power point !! I have to use power point all the time for my work. And I just love it !!

Its the content which matters folks, not the tool !!!

Thats why Powerpoint is so silly. It dumbs down the presentationbecause each slide can only take a small bit of information. Tuftes didnt say to totally get rid of it but use it for photos and hard evidence and make a detailed handout of the real stuff.
Most people just put their 12 bits per slide , then stand there and READ the presentation to the audience. VAPID

Its not power point's fault is it ?

good point, however, because PP only allows a certain amt of content per slide, presentations and conference materials are turned into " sight bytes" . This format forces one to distill the crap out of content, like the Gettysburg address example.

While Lincoln could have thrown the address up on PP line-by-line, most presentations try to secure an essence by trimming the important stuff right out. There are probaly presentations where its best to skim to keep everyone at attention, in most cases, there is some detail needed. Thats whhere PP fails.

In an effort to give a balanced view of the position I have forwarded, I have found 2 articles from wired. (BTW I tracked thomas's reference back to Wired magazine , wherein there were additional articles that espoused one or the other actions regarding PP, )
hhere they are

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html POWERPOINT SUCKS


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt1.html DOESNT SUCK

Again, it depends on the person who is using it - far too often people forget that power point is a "presentation tool" ot a document writing tool - though some people do write documents using power points, as it does give much greater fexibility than word for positioning text, pictures and such.

I use power points to present strategy, key points, highlights - and is always followed by detailed documents containing all the neccessary details behind the presentation.

But then, if I can lie in my power point presentation, then I can lie in my document as well...

has nothing to do with honesty, in science or engineering, sooner or later, youd be found out. It has all to do with mind numbing. Since PP doesnt allow details of a thesis, one is forced to follow slide after slide of pieces of data that the minds of the viewers dont process as successfully.
In presentations that are content driven, PP is an insult to the audience

I submit that PP, like PRESENTATIONS, is used more for its ease and ubiquitous availability rather than its superiority as a presentations tool. it takes little time to put together a talk in PP, whereas a more comprehensive presentation , carefully developed for content , takes effort

It the last five years at my university there has been a general shift by the faculty from the give and take of lecture and discussion to power point presentations. Not only are they inane, they are deadly dull. The only advantage is that the students are sitting in at least semi darkness which makes it easier for them to sleep in class (which as Groucho Marx said is where they sleep anyways).