hypocritical : talking the talk without walking the walk

June 05, 2006

PowerPoint pain points

While I tend to use hypocritical as a soapbox for espousing all sorts of strategic mumbo-jumbo, I do, in fact, tend to think tactically every once in a while. So, I thought I would take some time to share some of those tactics. Just to change up the pace a bit. You know, keep a little excitement in our relationship?

No, I won't wear that fuzzy pink number. But you will get tactics.

Now, some of you may know (and most of you probably don't care) that one of my first instantiations on the Web was flashgeek, a site that had one definitive purpose: helping people get Macromedia Flash movies into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Which, unfortunately, wasn't as easy as it sounds.

See? Tactical.

Oh my, I had grand plans for that site. And while the flashgeek tutorials have become less and less relevant over time, my love for PowerPoint and Flash shows no signs of waning. So let's explore some of those little PowerPoint tactics, shall we? Yes, we shall.

The real problem with PowerPoint

I am of the firm belief that one of the reasons PowerPoint presentations the world over are so eye-splittingly bad is due to one simple fact: PowerPoint makes it easy to do things that shouldn't be easy to do.
  • It shouldn't be easy to collect your thoughts in strands and strands of bullet lists with which you can assault your audience.
  • It shouldn't be easy to sift through gigs and gigs of vile and repulsive clip art -- free clip art, at that -- that helps you "illustrate your point."
  • It shouldn't be easy to apply styles and fonts and designs at your whim.
  • It shouldn't be easy to create drop shadows or three-dimensional objects that don't subscribe to the perspectives or physics of the real world.
But with PowerPoint, you can.

If PowerPoint were like working with Letraset press type, there would be fewer presentations out there, and those that were out there would be a great deal more effective.

But it isn't. It makes things easy.

Well, I want to help you make things a little more, well, un-easy. And in so doing, hopefully, we'll improve your presentations, your outlook, and your popularity. That's not so bad, is it?

Well, stay tuned, then.

UPDATE



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PowerPoint pain points
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