The debate rages.
Is PowerPoint good for you, or bad for you?
The problem with PowerPoint is that it is seductive. With
an AutoContent wizard, templates, animations, and clip art
all at your finger tips the temptation is to create a slide
show, then fit your presentation to it. This is putting the
cart before the horse and gives rise to the following
evils:
The slide show upstages the person. All those
transitions and animations attract the eye away from the
presenter, and away from the content. Experienced
PowerPoint users hardly ever use animations or
transitions.
The person uses the slides as their speech notes. They
show them to the audience and then read them out. Speech
notes belong on paper or small pieces of card. Showing them
to the audience spoils the effect.
The person doesn't try to give a lively, creative
presentation. Instead they believe that a good slide show
will make them look good. It doesn't.
The person skips the thinking and writing stage, and
goes straight to PowerPoint and tries to use it as a
writing tool. PowerPoint is actually very structured, not
just the templates and AutoContent, but the whole way the
program works. It is not a writing tool, and trying to use
it as such creates fractured, saccadic prose, with a
consequent loss of the flow of thought.
My suggestions to avoid these evils are:
Don't try to use PowerPoint at the beginning stage
of creating a presentation. Use paper and pen to draft out
your ideas or use a word processor. I recommend writing a
complete script for your presentation.
Plan how the presentation is going to go. What will you
say? How will you say it? Where will you stand? What props
or special effects will you use? A live weta crawling up
your arm is a thousand times more memorable than a bullet
point, or even a picture of a weta. Asking questions of
your audience is a more effective way to engage them than
showing them words on a screen.
If PowerPoint is one of the special effects that you
want to use, now is the time to begin creating your slide
show. Create slides that go with your presentation,
remembering the three evils above. Use slides to illustrate
and punctuate. This means being extremely restrained in
your use of templates, animations and clip art. Remember
that if you have nothing to show at a certain point you can
have a blank slide, or turn the projector off. It is a
visual medium, so use its ability to show pictures.
(Consider scanning in that sketch on the back of an
envelope.) If you want to write, use a word processor. If
you want your audience to see what you have written you can
display a Word document on the screen as easily as a
PowerPoint presentation, or give it to them as a
handout.
