I took a look at those chartjunk examples, Joe, and if Tufte's telling the truth about those being PP's default graph formats, then those defaults are horrible! Though the TIA logo is a little odd, I doubt it's part of the default format.

Of course, the flip side of "a good craftsman doesn't blame his tools" is that a good craftsman also replaces or fixes any tool that doesn't work well.

I always associate them with the sound of my head hitting the conference room table.

Edited by author 05-13-2003 03:56 PM
Interesting to note that Tufte uses the "illuminati" TIA logo to illustrate some "chartjunk" examples.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/1682339840/bboa...opic=Ask%20E%2eT%2e

A good craftsman doesn't blame his tools, but McCluhan might say that OHPs are a medium. He argued, of course, that certain media lend themselves to certain modes of thought, and I can see how that would apply here. I've spent my entire life with almost no exposure to ppt presentations, and the few I've seen make me feel that's a good thing.

There's also the issue of time spent prettifying the presentation rather than working on the content of it--which brings up a host of problems: maybe what you have to say won't seem important enough without lots of visual distractions. Maybe other people won't take you seriously without them. Maybe futzing with your ppt template is easier than actually working on what you have to say.

Don't get me started on ppt as a program.

One of the complaints on the cover of this "book" is about people reading the bullet points word-for-word as their presentation. Now that's not PowerPoint's fault!

I really don't see the harm in having an outline for your talk, and sharing it with your audience. Putting some thought into it can even make the outline useful on its own. I've read a number of PowerPoint-like presentations on the web, for talks I wasn't able to attend, and found them useful. Having a paragraph or so of notes to enhance each slide in the hand-out helps even more.

"A good craftsman doesn't blame his tools."

PowerPoint doesn't inherently suck, it's just that a lot of the people who use it have absolutely no idea how to design an engaging presentation.

I don't get it- I'm supposed to pay seven bucks for a 24-page pamphlet? Where's the value in linking to this? The post already quoted the exact text available on the page.

Interesting article by Neal Stephenson was published in Whole Earth Review a number of years ago: "Communication Prosthetics":

http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/442.html

I've found the New Yorker article verbal (/m4) referred to.

Read a few Powerpoint presentations left over from old meetings. Or think abuot PP presentations you got copies of from meetings you did not attend. There's frustratingly little content there isn't there?

If you call a meeting to get a group of people to make a decision, it's better to do this (actually Tufte's idea): (1) WRITE in plain English a few-page memo on the issue, its pros and cons, and the goal you want to achieve.
(2) At the meeting, give people 10 to 20 minutes to read and study the memo quietly. (Don't ask them to read the memo before the meeting; they won't unless they are unimportant people.)
(3) Discuss it and make your decision.
The meeting handouts will be useful (not vague like those bulet points) and the decision will be made on the basis of clear argumentation.

I'm not convinced that powerpoint is all that bad. The article begins with the admission that similar slides are the way things were done beforehand. Perhaps you remember the way things were done with pre-printed transparencies? Same deal: stick-figures, bullet-points... same as with notecards.
The slides are, for the most part, the "take-home message," the key ideas, the powerful points, if you will, of the presentation.

Could be that people who would otherwise be unprepared can use powerpoint, and that it makes bad presentations easier, but I doubt that it actually corrupts the thought process.

There was a New Yorker article on this awhile ago, as well, that noted the prevalence in churches (hymn lyrics, mostly) as well. It opened with a story about a woman who couldn't get her kids to do their chores. She sat them down and subjected them to a PowerPoint presentation about their role in the family and why chores were important. The next time they failed to do their chores, she had only to threaten with the presentation again and they burst into tears and cleaned their rooms. Tell me that's not effective!

Bah.

Like everything else in this world, doing a good job requires skill and time.

I remember a particularly impressive slide show I ran off my digital camera (video-out into an LCD projector). I prepared everything for that in Powerpoint and it worked fine. I used a 16:9 aspect and alpha-channels in the included images (a blended white halo), and using the camera for the final product meant that I used no transitions or animations.

Edited by author 05-13-2003 12:09 AM

Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

Summary

• Lots of Corporations Use PowerPoint
  
• PowerPoint reduces everything to bulleted lists
  
• Bulleted Lists hinder critical thinking.

Keynote.