Not a Fan of Powerpoint
Sunday, March 21st, 2010Where I work I had a manager once that used to like to give our customers their reports in PowerPoint. And whenever there’s a presentation on any project, naturally someone wants to make a powerpoint document for it. It’ll be reliably full of bullet points in the usual telegraphic grammar style. And the presenter usually just reads the damned thing.
So I sit there contemplating the more useful and pleasurable things I could have down with this particular hour of my life. Like have a cavity drilled and filled, getting a root canal. Or installing Windows Vista.
So it’s with delight that I came across this:

Design by Mark Goetz. And see information presentation guru Edward Tufte as well. Presentations CAN be made well in PowerPoint or KeyNote (on the Mac). Here’s a few tips:
- Use the presentation to highlight key points. Don’t list everything.
- Presentations should provide a framework to discuss a topic, not everything you’ll say.
- You should already know what you want to say.
- Whatever you do: don’t read from the slides!
I think people get into bad presenting styles because they don’t like speaking in front of a group and they’re afraid they’ll forget something. Well, that’s what your own notes are for. The presentation is to communicate ideas to others, not to remind yourself. Watch good presentations on YouTube from Lessig, and the TED.com presentations have some good examples too. And Google as always provides a wealth of resources, YMMV.
But Powerpoint, as typically used, is an abuse of technology. The trick - as always - is to use the technology instead of letting the technology use you.
