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Return to Article: FEATURES Missing the Point

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  The bullet stating that Power Point "offers little opportunity for intellectual digression, since slides are presented in sequence," only applies to individuals who lack the creativity to input hyperlinks to past and future slides. I am not recommending this because every hyperlink has to be accomplished by adding symbols or text boxes that are meaningless to the viewers, and could further lead to display clutter. Nevertheless breaking the sequence affect can be accomplished.

  GovExec.com reader Posted November 11, 2004 2:15 PM
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  What most people don't understand about Powerpoint is its actual function. Powerpoint is merely a visual outline of a presentation. It is not meant to give all the information, it is designed to give listeners a guide to follow the speakers thoughts. There should always be supplemental information provided at any presentation, which should include printouts of the slides to remind the listener where the supplemental information fits into the overall presentation.

  The biggest problem with Powerpoint are the "cute" things that can be done, the transitions and graphics and sounds which can be added to nearly every component on every slide. These problems are easily solved by making approved templates for use in any business, and providing minimal training to the individuals responsible for creating presentations.

  I found the article to be worse than useless. The author obviously doesn't know how to use the program, made no effort whatsoever to talk with anyone who uses, or teaches, Powerpoint, and did nothing to present alternatives. This was not a well-balanced article, it was not well researched, and it did nothing to describe solutions to the problems outlined. Instead, it seemed to argue unilaterally banning Powerpoint based on bad usage instead of suggesting how to control output.

  It makes sense to point out the pitfalls of bad Powerpoint use, however it is very important to understand what it is supposed to do and discuss the best way to use it as the tool it is.

  Cindy Tyo Posted September 16, 2004 4:53 PM
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  What many people don't seem to understand is that PowerPoint is the perfect embodiment of the Microsoft philosophy--do the thinking for the user! And that underlying philosophy is what drives many of us crazy about all Microsoft products--especially those of us who have been die-hard WordPerfect users in a Microsoft world. Unfortunately, because of the widespread prevalence of MS use, we can't function without it; we're stuck with it!

  GovExec.com reader Posted September 15, 2004 6:34 AM