
Why PowerPoint should be banned - SimplyUseless
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/26/powerpoint-should-be-banned-this-powerpoint-presentation-explains-why/?tid=pm_pop_b
======
Someone1234
Even if you did ban PowerPoint, people would just find a way to do PP-like
things with something else. For example, MS Word, with the page down key
(although then the transition animations go away, so that is a minor victory).

In my opinion, people are just poorly educated (or not educated) in
presentation making. Or to phase it another way, a school may teach them to
use PP the software but doesn't teach them how to put on a good presentation
using it.

One key thing people need to learn is: Slides exist to supplement what is
being said. If your presentation doesn't work without the slides then you're
doing it wrong. Putting exactly what you're saying into your slides verbatim
is generally a mistake (although putting key points or a list, and expanding
on it vocally can work well).

Generally most people put too much content into single slides as they're
worried about having to advance the slideshow mid-point. This means that your
point is too expansive, and you should cut your point in half and then cutting
your slides in half follows naturally (e.g. instead of doing a yearly
projection with summaries of each quarter, just do each quarter individually
and sum the year as a whole alone at the end).

I certainly don't think I'm an expert at presentations, I just care slightly
more than your average person, and have copied elements from what I consider
good deliveries.

~~~
lqdc13
I really like when people put a lot of information on the slides.

It makes going over past presentations very easy. For example, when a new ML
algorithm comes out, the only way to easily grasp how it works without reading
a bunch of papers is to find some Power Point slides by the author. I
guarantee people wouldn't make two sets of slides either.

~~~
ghaff
One of the problems with "Powerpoints" is that they serve at least two
different functions--as a visual aid for the the audience during the
presentation and as a leave-behind/documentation (or slideshare, etc.
independent of a presenter). One presentation is very unlikely to be optimal
for both. At the same time, you're right that it's unrealistic to expect
multiple versions.

~~~
Someone
You can put the presentation with speaker notes (possibly curated) on the web.
That may not be optimal for 'leave-behind' version, but it isn't that hard,
and it would be huge improvement.

~~~
ghaff
Speaker notes are one (sub-optimal) solution. I've also had years of
experience trying to get people to write speaker notes for sales presentations
much less for one-off conference presos. Hard to get it done. I try to do it
myself but I probably do it in practice 25-50% of the time because it simply
isn't a priority.

------
qq66
Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, on PowerPoint. Here are a few of my reactions
(mine alone, not Microsoft's):

* Presenting an idea is one of the most subtle arts of the human experience. It draws on skills like storytelling, communication, and persuasion which are way outside the scope of any software application. The best typewriter in the world is going to let Ernest Hemingway's Great American Novel flow directly from his mind onto the paper, but it isn't going to make me even a tiny bit more capable of writing a great novel.

* A single PowerPoint presentation is often called into double duty, both as a visual aid to a live presentation, and a standalone document that serves as the summary of the presentation for those who couldn't attend. ("I can't make it this afternoon -- please send me the deck.") This requirement forces the PowerPoint presentation and spoken content to become 100% redundant with each other, yielding the meetings where people read verbatim off an overly dense PowerPoint slide. PowerPoint has features that try to address this problem, such as hidden slides that show up in the printed document but not the slide show, and narration recording so that you can distribute the audio along with the slides, but presenting from the "leave-behind deck" is still common.

* There's always a tension between giving the user full control, and making the experience as simple as possible. Also, the more structure you embed in an authoring application about what the output "should" look like, the more you encourage everyone towards a homogenous vision defined by the product designers. PowerPoint does make it easy to insert simple diagrams such as with SmartArt, but fundamentally the application is designed to let the user take full control of the content. I wouldn't want a text editor that didn't allow me to write a grammatically incorrect sentence. However, a suggestion that "the grammar in this sentence might be wrong" could be useful, if presented in a non-obtrusive way.

These are issues we think about every day in the PowerPoint team, and I
appreciate reading the various viewpoints here.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Is there a reason why you rescale the font size when the user inputs too much
text? Changing it so that you'd have to really dig deep in some menu in order
to put 200 words on each slide seems like it would be a big improvement.
Beamer and the various HTML5 backends to Pandoc all do this and I really like
it.

~~~
MrTonyD
I suspect that most casual users appreciate that feature. And for myself, as a
"power user" \- who usually builds multi-hundred page slide decks - I often
construct drafts of my presentations that might include slides with a
cut/paste of material from documentation or the Internet - to be processed
later. So autosizing makes it possible for me to revise that raw material into
slides later.

------
kejaed
One of the slides in the WP story credits Edward Tufte, who has written and
published an essay on the subject, "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint:
Pitching Out Corrupts Within" [1]. This, along with his seminal text "The
Visual Display of Quantitative Information" [2] are great reads, and I think
should be required reading for anyone who has to present anything, technical
or otherwise.

[1]
[http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp](http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp)

[2]
[http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi](http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi)

~~~
peter303
Two salient points from Tuft's essay:

1) a reference books like an almanac averages 150 characters per square inch;
a printed power point slide 7 characters per square inch (page 22): the visual
brain starves for stimulation during a poor PP presentation.

2) Tufte recommends high resolution handouts accompany PP image slides. Eschew
low content slides.

"Avoid elaborate hierarchies of bullet lists. Never read aloud from slides.
Never use PP templates to format paper reports or web screens. Use PP as a
projector for showing low-resolution color images, graphics, and videos that
cannot be reproduced as printed handouts at a presentation."

"Paper handouts at a talk can effectively show text, numbers, data graphics,
images. Printed materials, which should largely replace PP, bring information
transfer rates in presentations up to that of everyday material in newspapers,
magazines, books, and internet screens. A useful paper size for handouts at
presentations is 11 by 17 inches (28 by 43 cm), folded in half to make 4
pages. This piece of paper can show images with a resolution of 1,200 dpi and
up to 60,000 characters of words and numbers, the content-equivalent of 50 to
250 typical PP slides of text and data. Thoughtfully planned handouts at your
talk tell the audience that you are serious and precise; that you seek to
leave traces and have consequences. And that you respect your audience."

~~~
gknoy
Agreed. He advises us to make high resolution (paper!) handouts, and give them
out as people walk in. I was lucky enough to attend a presentation of his this
year where he did exactly that, and its effect was amazing.

Say, "Here, read this," and then give them ten or fifteen (or more, if it's a
longer talk!) to read as much as they can, before talking.

This helps because people can quickly skim the parts they don't care about,
jot down questions, focus on the parts that are interesting or that they want
to understand better -- and not everyone feels the same about each part of
your presentation.

Then, in your talk, you can basically follow a similar rubric, or allude to
the handout, and people can (and will!) ask questions about the meaningful
parts.

He also notes that it's important NOT to send them ahead of time in emails, as
no one will read them. Force people to read them (or play on their phones);
the people who are most busy will scour the paper for useful info. Jeff Bezos'
[0] meetings follow a similar pattern.

0: (apologies for lazy searching :)) [http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-
bezos-amazon-fortune-int...](http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-
fortune-interview-2012-11)

------
samspot
People who currently use powerpoint to be ineffective will find other ways to
be ineffective without it. People also write terrible emails and create
horrible documents. Ridiculous books are written. Zero-content instant
messages are sent. Some people don't get how to use the phone. Shall we
discard them all?

~~~
collyw
I am sure it wasn't as bad back in the day with transparent sheets and a
marker pen. (Whatever those things were called).

Most diagrams were drawn on the fly - meaning a minimalistic approach, only
conveying the information necessary.

~~~
ghaff
Those had their own limitations. But, yes, today's equivalent--whiteboarding--
can be an effective communication tool for someone who knows and understands
material having a discussion with a (preferably small) audience.

That said, I remember lots of transcription from a professor's notes to a
blackboard to students' notebooks with very little value-add along the way.

------
edw519

      Slide 1
      ------------------
      |   Programmer   |
      |      and       |
      |    Manager     |
      |   Kidnapped    |
      |      by        |
      |   Terrorists   |
      ------------------
    
      Slide 2
      ------------------
      |                |
      |    Company     |
      |    Refused     |
      |    to pay      |
      |    Ransom      |
      |                |
      ------------------
    
      Slide 3
      ------------------
      |                |
      |     Death      |
      |    Sentence    |
      |    Imposed     |
      |                |
      ------------------
    
      Slide 4
      ------------------
      |                |
      |      Last      |
      |      Wish      |
      |    Granted     |
      |                |
      ------------------
    
      Slide 5
      ------------------
      |   Manager's    |
      |   Last Wish:   |  
      |  To Give Final |
      |    89 Slide    |
      |   Powerpoint   |
      |  Presentation  |
      ------------------
    
      Slide 6
      ------------------
      |  Programmer's  |
      |   Last Wish:   |
      |                |
      |    "Kill Me    |
      |      First"    |
      ------------------

------
kaspm
I think perhaps instead of saying "powerpoint should be banned" perhaps poorly
built diagrams and powerpoint slides with too much data that are meant to be
read should be banned. Slides and visuals as part of a presentation are used
to focus the listener visually on the main point being discussed. People are
(generally) visually oriented and enhancing a presentation with visuals using
slides can make your presentation better.

~~~
sp332
PowerPoint should be banned because its interface encourages the creator to
add distractions. It has almost no tools for making things simpler.

~~~
mashmac2
So... PPT really just needs a new design interface?

~~~
niels_olson
To an extent. I use iPython with RISE or a deck.js based system. I really like
the deck.js method because my interface is vim.

~~~
jszymborski
I just searched up RISE, and as a guy who loves reveal.js and spends a lot of
time writing python in IPython (and who wants to bridge out into Julia), this
is a godsend.

Thanks for bringing it up!

------
vkb
I've seen this type of article come up at least once a year for the last five
years now, but banning PowerPoint will not happen in the short-to-medium term
in most large (and small, even) companies . Why? Because it's a default app
installed on most office machines and because PowerPoint is the language
managers speak. If you don't have a PowerPoint or email that managers can
physically take to meetings with their managers, it's hard to understand what
you're working on. I don't say this cynically; I say it truthfully, because
it's human nature.

Tufte suggests banning Powerpoint and giving people handouts to read at
meetings; I don't see this getting a lot of traction in most places, simply
because people have a lot of other stuff going on.

What I do see as a possible are classes on visual design at both the grade
school and college level. Even just one a year can make younger people better
at presenting information and will eventually trickle up.

~~~
Retra
Anything you do that distracts from the speaking is probably not a good idea.
Don't pass around papers, treats, demos, and don't clutter your slides with
too much reading. Keep your audience focused on what _you_ are saying.

~~~
mynameisvlad
Bingo. I use Powerpoint to highlight the key points I'll discuss on any
particular slide. Very high-level, broad, 1-2 word descriptions. It helps
people keep up with the flow (if they zoned out for a few seconds, for
example), and reminds them afterwards when they review the slides.

------
mratzloff
In a class I took in college, we had to give a final presentation to go along
with a paper we wrote. The presentations were to be about 30 minutes (not too
hard to come up with content, as my paper ended up being 50 pages). With the
paper, this was essentially our entire grade for the class.

I decided to do it without PowerPoint. I was the only one.

Instead of relying on slides, I looked people in the eye and gave a
presentation from memory, with a set of index cards as backup. I told stories
and tried to make it relatable. Now, I've gotten better at these kinds of
things over the course of my career, but even in college I was pretty
confident in my ability to give these kinds of presentations. (I even took an
acting class just to refine my public speaking skills.) Anyway, after I was
finished I felt good about how I did.

I got a C-. Literally the only feedback the professor gave me was that I
should have had a PowerPoint presentation "to give people something to look at
while I talked".

~~~
ddingus
IMHO, that grade maybe was appropriate.

I applaud you for doing that, and I personally would have gotten a lot out of
your talk. Good, clear, verbal communication is fantastic! Good on you for
attempting it. I have similar leanings and skills.

The hard truth I've learned is not everyone can take in it that form. If you
have any sort of an audience, the potential for those people will be
actualized, and you lose on overall communication fidelity for those people
without a visual reference. Secondly, there are people who really need to
vocalize to learn, or do something, or experience it in tactile ways, etc...
You will find these people asking questions, seeking to be a part of the
dialog, taking notes, making motions, drawing, closing their eyes...

Multi-sensory communication is high fidelity as well as broadband. Think of
the different axis possible. We often do this with young people, giving a
talk, letting them speak, having them touch it, or do it, take notes, etc...

Adults work the same way, though their greater body of experience generally
means they are well equipped to handle visual / aural presentations fairly
well. You can get the majority of them with a dual style.

This takes some extra work, and might not be in your personal sweet spot, but
it's generally worth doing.

YMMV, but 20+ years of communicating to individuals, small groups and crowds
composed of amateurs, business people and techies speaking here.

~~~
mratzloff
Great reply, thanks for the insight. I'm still not sure about the grade being
correct; most of the presentations were dreadful--of the "read the PowerPoint
to you" variety--but I'm guessing at least some of them got Bs if not As. That
said, I'll keep it in mind going forward. Any presentations I do these days
are much less formal, which helps with interactivity.

~~~
ddingus
One other thing struck me.

Since you lean verbal, consider light, concept type visuals as much as you
can. These kinds of presentations tend to do very well, and you've got a
strength that favors them. These days, talks are often available to view
later, and or we can distribute files, meaning you can include text for people
to read without having to prep so much visual clutter in the form of text, and
other difficult to manage things on the slides.

------
blattus
I work in consulting; I have seen my fair share of badly-drawn graphics and
spend more time using PowerPoint than I would care to admit.

The reality is that for most of Corporate America banning PowerPoint is not
going to happen anytime soon. In our industry, decks are viewed not just as
presentations but general fodder for deliverables, handouts, etc. I've been on
several engagements where we intentionally jam-packed slides full of content
(including multiple levels of footnotes) so they "stood on their own" in case
someone picked up or distributed the deck after the meeting in which it was
used.

If I was giving a talk I'd agree that presentation style would be overkill,
but I've been in meetings with C-level execs and VPs where the extra info has
paid off by being able to preempt questions and provide additional
justification for the conclusion. Sometimes having a crowded slide is more
"professional" in a meeting context than alt-tabbing to the detailed Excel
worksheet showing the assumptions.

~~~
ghaff
Yeah, keynote/"compelling conference content" presentations are very different
animals. Even if some would prefer my presentations of the former type stood
on their own better, my focus there is on the live experience. If you're
presenting the findings of a consulting project? Not so much. In that case,
the charts and graphics should be professional and clean but also focus on
data/recommendations/etc. Very different animals.

~~~
qznc
The question is: Why use Powerpoint to present the findings of a consulting
project? Handout-only would probably be superior. Amazon does it like this.

[http://conorneill.com/2012/11/30/amazon-staff-meetings-no-
po...](http://conorneill.com/2012/11/30/amazon-staff-meetings-no-powerpoint/)

------
vezzy-fnord
The smartass in me would be tempted to get around this hypothetical ban by
using LibreOffice Impress.

More seriously, you could make the exact same arguments for banning Photoshop.
The more widely adopted software is, the higher the numbers of people who use
it improperly. Not much of a solution here beyond deliberately crippling
functionality.

------
BinaryIdiot
Ha, as someone who has worked in the public sector the army (hell most of the
defense community) essentially RUNS on PowerPoint. They should certainly move
away from it but there are so many workflows that have been established for so
many years moving is going to be painful and likely require custom solutions
for each type of report.

------
Joeri
Powerpoint is not the problem. People thinking the tool makes them a presenter
is the problem. Being a good presenter is not an easy thing to learn, and
using a tool like powerpoint doesn't make you any better at it. The best
resource I've found so far for learning how to present is macsparky's field
guide to presentations, but if anyone knows of a better resource I'm all ears.

------
InclinedPlane
You can't just ban PowerPoint without replacing it, and without changing the
corporate culture.

PowerPoint cultivates a pitch based culture. Taking away PP will still leave
that culture in place, they'll just find some other tool to make their
pitches. The problem is the culture, which needs to be cut down and have the
stump pulled out of the ground. It sounds like a lot of work because it is a
lot of work.

Before PowerPoint the way that kind of work got done was through lots of long
form written work. RFC-style documents, very long memos that bordered on
essays or research papers, that sort of thing. Today the art of communicating
that way has to a significant degree been lost in the modern office. The
closest thing to it that exists today would probably be internal blogs and
wikis. Which is precisely what I'd focus on as a replacement for PowerPoint.

Want to push some new project? Don't pitch it, blog it. Want to spread
knowledge of something to other teams, don't pitch it, document it in a wiki.

------
grayclhn
I haven't seen anyone mention it here, so a little off topic, but if you have
to make lots of presentations with slides Emacs's org mode pdf export [1] (via
LaTeX beamer) is a godsend. Easily the fastest way to put together slides I've
used, and you get pretty good math and source code support.

An example pdf (not great content, but...):
[http://gray.clhn.org/dl/macros_etc.pdf](http://gray.clhn.org/dl/macros_etc.pdf)

edit: and the .org source file, which is probably more relevant:
[https://github.com/heike/stat590f/blob/master/macros/macros_...](https://github.com/heike/stat590f/blob/master/macros/macros_etc.org)

[1]: [http://orgmode.org/manual/Beamer-
export.html](http://orgmode.org/manual/Beamer-export.html)

------
brudgers
Power Point is ubiquitous because it offers improved communications. Just
because some journalist isn't old enough to remember slides and overhead
projectors doesn't mean such things didn't exist. If there's a shortcoming
with Power Point it's that it is based on the idea of printing everything out
rather than dynamic interaction. It's an old paradigm, but it's hard to beat
something modelled on the physical world.

~~~
phren0logy
I disagree.

In the pre-PowerPoint era it was more common for people to actually prepare a
talk rather than hide behind hastily-created slides that usually serve more as
prompts for the speaker than visual enhancements to the content.

It is certainly possible to give bad presentations without PowerPoint, and
good presentations with it, but most people only learn bad habits.

PowerPoint PRO TIP: The "b" key will bring up a black screen, and the "w" key
will bring up a white screen, so people can look at your actual face when you
are talking to them.

~~~
brudgers
In my experience, well prepared presentations were not more common in any
absolute sense. Perhaps it was more common in a relative sense since carefully
prepared presentation slides were often the purview of a more select few. In
those days a third grade teacher might have some overheads. These days, the
third grade students are preparing pptx's as part of the curriculum.

Banning Power Point because there are so many mediocre Power Points out there
is like banning email because there are so many poorly written emails. Power
Point provides unprecedented access to presentation tools as part of the
"computer on every desk and in every home" revolution. A presentation no
longer requires a draftsman and special print media. People can do it
themselves. Even those for whom visual communication and on stage
presentations are not core competencies. Most presentations aren't very good.
They don't need to be. They just need to be good enough.

My Tip from making architectural presentations: Place yourself on the audience
side of the fourth wall and point to your images as you tell your story. If
it's about you and not the content, you're already on the wrong track because
it's about you and not the audience.

------
philippnagel
I think it is wrong to blame the tool. It all comes down to usage.

------
venganesan
This is like saying food makes us fat, ban food! Nonsensical

~~~
coldtea
If we're to use logic, how about use it properly?

For one, food is essential for our survival. Powerpoint is not. So while
banning food would be nonsensical (for that reason), banning Powerpoint
doesn't have the same issue.

A better example would be: "French fries make us fat, ban french fries".

Not as nonsensical. French fries are not essential to eat in the first place,
and cause harm according to most studies.

~~~
scrollaway
And thus, after banning french fries, the world was less fat.

I think you made GP's point better than he did. Banning the medium and hoping
that fixes the root issue is a bit foolish. Not to say banning the medium
isn't always a bad idea, but doesn't mean it'll help.

~~~
coldtea
> _And thus, after banning french fries, the world was less fat._

Well, maybe not french frieds, but HFCS sure.

------
danek
Edward Tufte argues that powerpoint is indeed the problem.

PowerPoint is a slideware operating system which forces the presenter to
contort the content into its low-resolution format. This necessarily makes the
content less understandable, unless the content happens to be photographs and
your topic is something like art history. It's easy to say it's the fault of
bad presenters, but other formats don't necessarily make your audience dumber;
with PowerPoint it is the rule rather than the exception.

 _" The average number of numbers on a powerpoint slide is 12. This is
slightly better than communist propaganda (Pravda 1982). For comparison, see
the sports page."_ \--me, poorly paraphrasing

Discussion of how slideware led to 2 space shuttle explosions: _PowerPoint
Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports_
[http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=0...](http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=0001yB)

Tufte's textbooklet on powerpoint (an excerpt from his book Beautiful
Evidence): _The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within_
[http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint](http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint)

~~~
ddingus
I don't understand "low resolution"

Frankly, PPT has as much resolution as you need. The question really is, "what
resolution makes the best sense?" Up-thread, somebody mentioned paper handouts
being distributed just before the talk. That's a great idea, and it can
mitigate some of the resolution perception issues, and or help when using
higher fidelity isn't so appropriate.

But not all PPT presentations actually are delivered as presentations in the
classic sense. One really great use case is reviews between peers, or maybe a
smaller group, with one person managing the PPT, edits being made, etc... One
can pack considerable detail into a PPT, rich with media, or just dense with
text / illustrations.

Maybe there is just a lot of pressure or expectations of low-fi, but it's not
seemingly an artifact of the software to me.

~~~
danek
By low-res, Tufte is referring to the concept of _stacking information in
time_ , rather than _placing it adjacent in space_. (this is all his insight,
not mine) It's "low res" in the same way a phone voice-mail menu is low-res _"
press 1 for x, press 2 for y, press 3 for z, etc"_. You get bits of
information sequentially, stacked in time. The onus is on you, the receiver,
to piece the information together into some sort of mental matrix so you can
make your decision. A high-res counter-example would be seeing all options
together, like you would in a table of contents.

One way PPT is low-res is that there is not enough room on a slide to type
full sentences. It _wants you_ to dilute your thoughts into a bullet list or
some similar fragmented format.

Often a presentation involves a series of slides, and ideally you'd want the
audience to make comparisons between slides e.g. _Before XXX, After XXX, &
Therefore XXX is good._ The sequentiality of slides is another example of it
being low-res. This increases the cognitive effort needed to engage with your
content, making it difficult for anyone to actually think critically about
what you are saying. In other words, it's a great sales tool!

The paper handout is an excellent idea. You can fit the information of about
250 ppt slides onto a standard 11x17 sheet of paper.

PPT can be useful in other cases (I've used it for drawing seating charts),
but it tends to be pretty terrible for presenting any sort of analytical
content. I've seen a many PPT presentations from accomplished, smart people,
and I can't recall a single one that wouldn't have been more effective as a
paper handout.

~~~
ddingus
That's the thing. If you want to put full sentences, even paragraphs on a
slide, PPT does that.

It's only low resolution when used that way.

I do understand "wants to be low res" though. Thanks!

------
krylon
Part of me wants to agree with the article. It is easy to use PowerPoint to
cover up the fact you don't have a clue what you are talking about by using
lots of flashy effects and "bling" that PowerPoint offers.

The style I prefer is rather minimal and mainly uses PowerPoint as a "cheat
sheet" to give me cues on what I want to tell my audience. This encourages me
to focus on the audience rather than the computer running PowerPoint and speak
more freely. An occasional image can help illustrate a point, but I tend to
use them very sparingly. (The disadvantage is that someone simply looking at
the slides afterwards won't have a clue what I said, but I can live with
that.) The feedback I have received was very positive, although I never spoke
to Marketing people who seem to be all about the pretty pictures and flashy
transitions.

My point, I guess, is that PowerPoint can be abused, badly, but I am not sure
if it is fair to blame it for that. The world would not be _that_ much worse
off without PowerPoint, but people looking to distract from their cluelessness
will find a way to do so anyway. A more realistic article might be titled "Use
PowerPoint only when nothing else will do" or "Stop talking _at_ your audience
and start talking _to_ them".

EDIT: Fixed a typo

------
jasonlotito
PowerPoint isn't the problem. The problem is asking people who aren't
proficient speakers or presenters to present on something. We are literally
asking them to present on a topic they know about and communicate it in a way
that is effective and informative. PowerPoint isn't the issue. The issue is
one of training. PowerPoint (and other presentation software) is easy enough
to use, it gives you all the tools you need to prepare an excellent
presentation. But just because I have a kitchen filled with chef-quality tools
and the best food available doesn't mean I'm immediately a professional cook,
let alone a chef. I might be able to hobble together a meal suitable for the
family dinner table, but I'm not quitting my day job.

But no one is suggesting we ban burners and bowls from the kitchen.

The call to ban PowerPoint is harmful. It ignores the real problem while
pretending to solve things it cannot really solve. The result will be that the
real underlying problem goes unfixed longer, while those that don't use
PowerPoint will effectively be given a pass: "You aren't using PowerPoint, you
must know what you are talking about."

Knives might be dangerous, but when you are trained to use them, they are
useful. Don't ban knives from the kitchen.

------
peter303
In my town we have monthly science meeting called the Cafe Scientifique. A
speaker must present his topic in twenty minutes without a projector (sort of
an expanded elevator pitch). It can work even for the most complicated topics.
The speaker is forced into a more story-telling style. And to focus on a few
points told well.

P.S. The speaker may distribute a single handout or have a couple images as a
large poster.

~~~
cesarbs
That's really awesome. Which town is that?

------
jedberg
Part of the problem is that Powerpoint guides you to these terrible
presentations (and Google Presentations is even worse). At least Keynote
_tries_ to stop you from doing awful things to some extent.

But at the end of the day it's really the people using the tool that are doing
it wrong. People just need to learn the difference between a Presentation, an
Infodeck and an Essay, and when to use each one.

------
yellowapple
This article (and the presentation the article is about) entirely misses the
point (or what _should_ be the point) of a slideshow: to serve as a visual aid
for a spoken lecture, speech, or other monologue. When displayed in this
context, even the seemingly-worst slides make sense.

What the presentation in question does is simply yank out a bunch of slides
from not only their context within the overall slideshow, but also from their
broader context of a presentation-assisted monologue. You're not _supposed_ to
try to encapsulate the entirety of a subject into a series of bullet points;
you're supposed to capture the key _topics_ in those bullet points and expand
on them through monologue and (should questions be fielded)
dialogue/discussion/debate/fruit-throwing/etc.

Yeah, I'd probably agree that the case studies of why PowerPoint should be
banned _also_ missed the point of a slideshow, but that's hard to know without
having a transcript or recording of the finished presentation.

Basically, there's more to a presentation than just the slides.

------
webtards
Powerpoint is just an enabler for crap presentations. Maybe the trick is to
make it harder to fill the canvas, so the pages become a bit sparser, and
revert back to their original intended purpose, an aide memoire for the
presenter to actually present, to use them as a reinforcement of the content,
as a guide, and not, really not, something they just read verbatim from the
slide!

~~~
VLM
"and not, really not, something they just read verbatim from the slide!"

That interferes with the very popular use of distributing powerpoints to be
read verbatim as official company policy etc. Its a micromanagement tool. You
will read exactly this syllabus line as written in class. Its very difficult
to get micromanagers to divest themselves of a powerful tool.

------
geophile
Pens can be used to write dull, cliched, uninspired novels. Many bad novels
have been written using pens. Therefore pens should be banned.

Disclaimer: I do, in fact, hate powerpoint.

------
DigitalSea
PowerPoint used correctly can be great. The article seems a little over-the-
top, just because a few people are misusing it is not cause for going and make
statements like PowerPoint should be banned. a can of spray paint in an
artists hands can make a piece of art, a spray paint can in the hands of a
teenager painting graffiti on a billboard is vandalism and misuse.

If we banned PowerPoint, people would just find another way to create an
abomination of a slideshow using something else. The tool isn't the problem.
Just like paint cans aren't to blame for graffiti and car manufacturers aren't
to blame for drivers who misuse their cars speeding. There are bigger problems
going on in the world that we should be worrying about more than we should bad
PowerPoint presentations.

------
ryan90
This is so idiotic. Click/share-bait at it's finest.

Yes, there are awful powerpoint presentations.

Yet as someone who has worked at a company where business cases and data
visualization is extremely important, I can say that Powerpoint decks are
easily the most effective communication tool.

When done properly, they tell a story.

They can be standalone, or an aid to a presentation.

Yes, there are awful powerpoints. Many people abuse them. Or use them as a
knowledge dump. Or fail to keep the reader in mind when creating them.

That does not mean that the platform itself is flawed.

And sure, some business areas could do better without them.

Just because there are terrible papers written, doesn't mean Word documents
are bad. Just because most people write terrible emails, doesn't mean email is
a poor communication tool.

The key - as with any medium - is learning how to use it to effectively
communicate.

------
hudibras
I worked in the Pentagon and I've both built and received many, many DoD
Powerpoint briefs over the years. The comments here about "don't blame the
tool" are spot-on.

But I also want to point out that all or nearly all of the hopelessly
complicated wire diagram slides (such as the PRISM slide or JSF org chart
slide) are supposed to look that way because the briefer is trying to show
that something is too complicated and that you, the person being briefed,
should do something about it. They're being used ironically, in other words.

It's actually become an overused rhetorical technique and some people will
call you out if you use it. "Why is the FBI on this slide?" "Uh, we emailed
them once a couple years ago so we connected them with a dotted line..."

------
lucb1e
This is about the tenth time I've heard Powerpoint should be banned. It's
prohibited at Amazon I've heard. It's almost as evil as WordArt apparently.

But they all fail to convey one point: what should I do instead?

Today I gave a powerpoint presentation. In fact almost every presentation I
gave has been with Libreoffice Impress or Microsoft Office Powerpoint. Should
I get rid of slides altogether and just talk (I usually hate talks that do
that)? The main point of OP's article seems to be that bullet points are not a
form of coherent thought, but who says all my Powerpoints are bullet points? I
put much less text on slides than my average classmate or colleague. Am I
doing it badly? Should I be using a different program? Please, I'm all ears.

------
MrTonyD
I'm an old timer. I remember a time before PowerPoint existed - and we did
communicate with reports, whiteboard, flip-charts, and talks. Trust me -
PowerPoint is better.

If nothing else, if forced people to put more thought into their talk - since
they had to write down something on those slides. And it allowed for the
potential to create something persuasive with graphs and sequence to accompany
a talk. That really didn't exist.

And use a Word Processor for talks? I've done that - it can be done, but it
doesn't compare to a specialized tool you can use to put together a slide set
in a matter of minutes.

------
eghri
This is largely just an argument against bad presentations - PowerPoint or
otherwise. I agree that PowerPoint is not the right medium for many things
(e.g. technical reports), but a lot of these critiques are also the strengths
of PowerPoint. The lack of space forces the presenter to slim down their
argument to the essentials. That shouldn't encourage burying important
information in sub-bullets, but to the contrary, encourage highlighting key
risks/concerns.

The downside of technical reports and white papers is that it's far too easy
for people to blather on without purpose, and it's far too hard for me as the
audience to review. I can skim through a PowerPoint in minutes and get a good
sense for whether it's worth my time. It's much harder to do that with a long
free-form text. I also think the presenter is more important than the medium
in most cases: I bet the same person making those awful NSA slides would write
an awful white paper (and vice-versa).

Long story short, people have a really hard time concisely and precisely
expressing their arguments, and we all need constant practice to get better.
Everyone should also have several options in their presentation tool kit and
be able to use the right one for a given task.

------
Zigurd
If I'm not talking in front of a big room, I prefer to whiteboard notes and
diagrams as I'm talking, based on an outline that would otherwise be pretty
near to what I'd put on slides.

One big advantage of whiteboarding is that you're much more likely to draw a
diagram. People seem to pay more attention. If they want a take-away, you can
photograph the drawings and notes.

For whatever reason, trying to do the same in a big room with an overhead
projector is much harder.

------
XCSme
Really? Why not ban Word because people write bad books?

------
gcv
Instead of banning specific tools, try promoting officers and enlisted
personnel who do a good job, including public speaking and presenting ideas.

------
Tycho
I always wonder what the point of slides is... it usually seems to lead to the
awkward situation where someone either reads the slide verbatim, which is
pointless, or says something different from what the slide says, which is
distracting. I think only Steve Jobs style keynote addresses really use
presentation software well, but that's far too much effort for most instances.

On the other hand, there's definitely some merits to the format. It forces
people to be concise and boil their commentary down to the essential insights.
It lets people use structure more in their text: nested bullet points,
different font sizes, dedicating a whole slide to one statement, etc. It also
lets non-textual elements take equal prominence. It prompts readers to think
about the implications of a statement for themselves rather than just skimming
sentences. Basically it gives people more flexibility than just writing a
report or an email. I can see why they are popular.

I do think better training so people could emulate Steve Jobs if they wanted
to would be very welcome.

~~~
ghaff
Keynote presentations (not the software but the basic presentation format)
aren't justified in effort nor are appropriate for many presos. Many business
presentations are intended to be interrupted and to veer off in new directions
as appropriate.

Thar said, presentation training is worthwhile and too many presentations have
too many words.

------
vincentbarr
While I find PowerPoint cumbersome to use and strongly dislike the idea of
wasting time aligning and realigning elements arbitrarily, I think the larger
problem isn't due to the software itself but that it's overused and often the
wrong tool for the job at hand.

Presentations are not substitutes for documents.

At a workshop on presenting information, Edward Tufte introduced the idea of
beginning meetings with a high-resolution transfer in the form of a printed
document. In short, you prepare a document in advance, print a copy for each
attendee, share it at the beginning of the meeting, and give people plenty of
time to read and digest the information.

The benefits: -each person can read and learn according to their cognitive
style and at their rate of consumption. -time spent taking notes is converted
to time spent thinking and analyzing -information can be communicated much,
much more quickly than it would be through oration and a deck

------
grecy
I worked in Defense for a year. There were soldiers and staff getting close to
a "10,000 hour powerpoint" badge.

~~~
Retra
I was at a command brief once where one of the officers was presenting a 300+
slide powerpoint show. Fortunately his boss was having none of it, and spared
us most of the lecture.

------
donlzx
Powerful speakers seldom use slides, ordinary people like me rely on
PowerPoint slides to get the job done badly , when not having a strong
compelling case :)

The fundamental reason is that speech are more powerful than visual
presentation. When people listen their subconsciousness is activated and they
tend to accept things told (think about Hypnosis), when people open their eyes
their brain kick in and start analysis, they won't listen. Slides also get in
the way of speaker's body language, which is another most import factors in
communication.

The use of PowerPoint in class and training process is also debatable. When in
college, I could understand quite clearly the fundamental principles when my
professor used the tradition chalkboard to go over the equations, however, I
could hardly remember any of those equations and bullet points shown using
slides.

------
chuckcode
I'd like to see the article about why we should invest time in communicating
effectively rather than bashing on the tools that people misuse. Seems like on
every level there is room for improvement on conveying ideas to other people
even with all the technological improvements we've had.

Specifically I'd like to see us get better at expressing the core ideas but
still having the ability to easily dig deeper into the details even if it is
offline. Especially interesting is when a presentation allows the user to play
with the data additionally. Something like Mike Bostock's work[1] that conveys
a lot of information densely and also builds on an open platform to let
audience explore the data interactively.

[1] [http://bost.ocks.org/mike/](http://bost.ocks.org/mike/)

------
giltleaf
Title should be: Ban people like Katrin Park and untrained gov bureaucrats
from using power point.

Just because people don't know how to use something doesn't mean it should be
banned, or even that it's negative. Especially when her "challenging the
hegemony" point is 'use Prezi."

~~~
lvs
I've seen a couple of Prezi talks, and I have to say that that the only way a
Prezi talk could possibly be more discombobulating would be if I was forced to
watch it on an Oculus Rift while riding a city bus.

------
jsingleton
I think it can work as long as it's kept simple with high contrast, low
content and no transitions or animations. A good tip if you are running an
event is to ask the speakers to provide slides in PDF format (with one slide
per page, no builds). This forces them to keep it simple.

------
peter303
My favorite example was the Gettysburg Address - choppy idea presentation and
too much distracting colors.

------
Shivetya
Sadly those NSA/Etc horrid presentations could just as well come from where I
work. Having been asked about them before I simply replied, "wall of text" and
you guys did a great job of not getting to the point. See, they don't ascribe
to that rule of no more than three to five bullet points per slide. I have
seen Excel Spreadsheets embedded in slides.

I think Powerpoint serves two very important purposes. In the hands of good
management it conveys what is important and how it will be addressed. In the
hands of bad management it clearly shows their lack of focus reinforced in
slide form. (of course a 68 question survey on what you like and don't like
about work wasn't a damn clue)

------
matiasz
Jean-luc Doumont gives excellent advice on how to avoid making slides like the
ones mentioned in this article.

[http://www.principiae.be/X0800.php](http://www.principiae.be/X0800.php)

------
jcchin41
Following Jean Luc Doumont's simple advice on creating powerpoints has
dramatically helped me create more effective presentations that hold people's
attention. I highly recommend his book [1] and presentations [2] on reducing
noise in slides to maximize the effectiveness of key-takeaways.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meBXuTIPJQk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meBXuTIPJQk)
[2]
[http://www.treesmapsandtheorems.com/](http://www.treesmapsandtheorems.com/)

------
kazinator
Last time I made a presentation with slides was some 15 years ago. I used
SliTeX. (It seems that has been superseded by a slides document class in
LaTeX2e.)

The slides were very plain: just black text on a white background; no
animations. On the other hand, great looking formulas, nicely formatted source
code snippets and such.

I had a talk prepared; it wasn't a slide-reading marathon. The slides just
anchored what I was saying.

Today if I did slides, I would probably make them into static HTML pages with
simple navigation links. Or perhaps a dual frame: navigation pane with
screens.

~~~
mattstocum
You could accomplish all of that using PowerPoint. PowerPoint isn't the
problem, bad presentations are the problem. It's the same problem Access has.
It's not a bad program, but people use it to do bad things.

~~~
kazinator
However, just by researching and using open alternatives to PowerPoint, I
demonstrated free thought, which, in turn, bears relevance to making a good
presentation.

The root of the problem isn't PowerPoint itself or how people use it; it's
that it _doesn 't even occur to them that using something other than
PowerPoint (or not using anything of that sort at all) is even an option._

------
potomak
Well, about presentations, a couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation about a
tool[0] to create text adventures with Markdown and created a slide deck using
that tool. So the deck was itself a "presentable" text adventure[1].

[0] [https://github.com/potomak/gist-txt](https://github.com/potomak/gist-txt)

[1] [https://potomak.github.io/gist-
txt/#737a452d6f38c2b87403](https://potomak.github.io/gist-
txt/#737a452d6f38c2b87403)

------
markbnj
Whatever your feelings about Powerpoint, and mine personally fall close to the
"Powerpoint makes us stupid" line, you can't help but admire that Gettysburg
Address slide.

------
beat
Debating this is sort of a "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
argument.

PowerPoint is not inherently bad. Poor communication skills are inherently
bad.

------
CarloSanta4
Blame methods not tools! This has nothing to do with PowerPoint. This is about
bad or wrong methods of presenting ideas or concepts. Methods are how
something is done, e.g. graphically by a diagram or textual in short form or
by speech. PowerPoint is just a tool. You can use the wrong method of
presenting an idea (e.g. graphically) with a different tool (e.g. a sheet of
paper and a pen) as well.

------
thupten
dont' blame the tool. If a website is ugly, should we ban the internet?

~~~
dredmorbius
Arguably, yes.

------
keithgabryelski
haters gonna hate. The real issue: don't write power-points that are meant to
be studied -- power-points are meant as a presentation addition.

the only things I demand on a power-points are two numbers at the bottom

1) the slide number we are on

2) the total number of slides in the deck

that way I can decide if I should slit my wrists immediately or if I can push
through and wait the deck out.

------
moderation
My old powerpointless? page is still up at
[http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/](http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/) \- "A list of
articles discussing the impact of a reliance on PowerPoint® and bullet-point
based communication."

------
jsingleton
"Nothing stands for content-free corporate bullshit quite like PowerPoint" [0]

[0] [https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/930564-the-jennifer-
mo...](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/930564-the-jennifer-morgue-
laundry-files-2)

------
apalmer
There is neither anything inherently wrong with PowerPoint, and even more
'controversially' there is nothing inherently wrong with information dense
slides. Especially in the case where it includes complex graphics such as maps
and charts as shown here.

The small information limited bullet point laid out form of presentation is
derived from marketing/persuasive presentations. In that context then yes the
narrative should drive the discussion, and slides should just reinforce the
'take away' points. These slides should be light for the same reason Elevator
Pitches should be less than 2 minutes.

However other presentations such as some of the ones shown in the article are
not intended to persuade but intended to share dense information. For instance
saying that the military should not put dense maps in presentations intended
for brass who have to visualize the geographic layout based on the
presentation is pretty clueless.

Its a tool, not everyone is using it to accomplish the same goals as the
author is. Truth is 99% of times the marketing format of presentations is the
way to go, but it is not 100% of the time.

------
frederickf
Whenever I see an article about banning PowerPoint I think of Peter Norvig's
humorous PowerPoint rendition of the Gettysburg Address
[http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm](http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm)

------
engi_nerd
My personal definition of hell, that I experienced my final year of college: 8
AM Thermodynamics course, lecture consisted of a monotone-voiced prof reading
directly from a set of Powerpoint slides.

The interest I had in the topic at the beginning of the semester was nearly
crushed entirely.

------
vph
Edward Tufte already called for the demolition of PowerPoint. PowerPoint is
still alive and well. It won.

The truth is PowerPoint is a very effective tool and you used it properly. If
you are ignorant, lazy or stupid, no great tool can help you.

------
fsloth
Additional horrors of powerpoint: people drawing faux ui mockups combined with
few bullet points explaining the planned logic and calling this the design
phase of software development.

------
NeutronBoy
Powerpoint is a tool, that like email, can be used correctly or incorrectly.
PP is great at making slides for presentations. People are terrible at making
slides for presentations.

------
MarcScott
A comedic take on the use of PowerPoint

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjcO2ExtHso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjcO2ExtHso)

------
kropotkinlives
Powerpoint doesn't kill people. People kill people.

------
mfringel
The good news about PowerPoint is that it only takes five minutes for a
previously untrained person to make a slide presentation.

The bad news is roughly the same.

------
collyw
But excel first please! (Especially as a database).

------
tomphoolery
So we should ban PowerPoint because a bunch of old people with zero relevance
on my life can't figure it out? Why not just ban the Internet and those con-
flab-it programmable VCRs?

I'm also not of the opinion that slides are ever necessary. I'd rather just
watch a talk recording with the guy explaining what I see in the slides.
Usually slides for any talk I give are comical or non-sensical in nature.

------
anir
As someone already said "If you use a hammer as a saw, you can't claim the
tool is faulty."

------
sytelus
We also need to ban hammer and showels, lot of people just don't know how to
use them properly.

------
joshdance
Steve Jobs: "People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint"

------
verganileonardo
Is he suggesting that we ban Powerpoint because the users are not using it in
the right way?

I work at a MMB management consulting company and we use Powerpoint all day to
create really good presentations - full of insightful information and easy to
read.

------
paulpauper
Powerpoint is only as good as the content behind the slides

------
gjvc
looks like this article ripped off Don Watson
[https://vimeo.com/9369655](https://vimeo.com/9369655)

------
cognivore
PowerPoint doesn't kill presentations - people do.

------
rcurry
It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.

I've never understood why the ire gets directed towards PowerPoint rather than
the people who construct poor presentations.

------
nemanja
Putting together an effective presentation and visual aid (i.e. slide deck) is
very time consuming, very iterative, requires a lot of thought and reflection,
at least a few reviewers that are removed from putting it together and/or the
topic, and a lot of practice. Reducing presentation to simply putting together
a slide deck is a fail from the get-go. Blaming bad presentations on the tools
used to put them together is shallow.

While there is really no substitute for good coaching, first hand experience,
mistakes made and good feedback, here are a few quick tips that I've picked up
over the years -

1\. The best and most engaging presentations simply have a title that captures
the key point and a nice/fun background photo that supports/illustrates the
story. Audience will pay attention to the story instead of reading text off
the slide.

2\. To highlight a fact, keep it to one fact per slide. Make it short and
direct (e.g. "3x faster" rather than "212.32% performance improvement").

3\. To illustrate a quantitative point, one chart per page is okay, but it
must be super simple and easy (absolutely no 3D nonsense, at most 3-4 bars/2
lines/3-4 pie slices, clearly labeled axes). Multiple charts are sometimes
okay, but they must be each super simple, belong together, have the same
scales and tell a clear and obvious story. Effective charts are a topic of its
own, anything by Tufte is a great head start.

4\. If you must have more than one point on a slide, keep it at 3 direct,
concise bullets per page (if any bullet wraps with a large font, it's too
wordy and unclear). No sub-bullets or additional explanations should be
necessary. Two bullets is too little (i.e. condense it to one key point), four
is too much.

5\. No more than one simple diagram per page. Best to keep it to the title
that captures they key point and a diagram. Additional explanatory text should
not be necessary - if title + diagram can't stand on their own, they are not
good enough. Also, if the point of the diagram is not immediately obvious to
someone looking at it for the first time, the diagram sucks.

6\. Avoid wall of text (e.g. that NASA slide on Columbia's tiles) at all
costs. Audience will start reading the slide, completely tune out what you are
saying and then get bored half a way through and give up.

7\. Contrasting points or showing contradictory data/ideas requires extra care
to avoid cognitive dissonance.

8\. Background should be as plain as possible. White is best, black/gray could
be okay. Anything else pretty much sucks. All text in one color, with great
contrast to the background.

9\. Timing/length of presentation is super important. Generally, it is very
hard for people to stay focused for more than ~7 minutes, so it's good to
cover a point in less than 7 minutes and then change it up a bit (e.g. change
presenters, show a video, get to a different topic). Overall, presentations
should be less than 30 minutes, 45 minutes tops. Anything longer than that is
simply too long, you'll lose the audience. Here are two books on the topic I
found helpful. They are easy to follow, very short and to the point - "Style:
Toward Clarity and Grace" [1] and "Guide to Managerial Communication" [2].

* * *

Overall, the piece feels quite trashy - it dumps all the blame where it
doesn't belong (tool vs. lack of presentation/communication skill). Those
slides could have very well been made in Keynote or Reveal.JS and they
wouldn't suck any less. The piece is also not constructive, it doesn't give
reader any hints or tips how to make presentations better.

Finally, a great counterexample to the main point of the piece is pretty much
every slide deck that comes with Apple/Steve Jobs' keynote. The best part is
that no one remembers or pays particular attention to the deck, but if you
analyze the presentation more closely or watch it a couple of times, it
becomes clear how effective the decks are.

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226899152](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226899152)

[2]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013297133X](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013297133X)

------
vlunkr
This is quite a silly article. You can't blame a tool because it's been
misused.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Hah! That's every gun-control argument, ever.

------
AngeloAnolin
PowerPoint is not the problem. It is the content being delivered through it.

------
janci
The problem is not in PowerPoint, but in people using it.

------
SQL2219
Sign me up!

------
bbcbasic
Just want to mention Toastmasters for anyone wanting to improve their
presentation skills.

I learned there a lot about making presentations FOR the audience.

To PowerPoint or not is just one of many decisions to make depending on the
talk and the audience. Sometimes appropriate, sometimes it is not.

At Toastmasters (or at least the club I went to) no PowerPoint was used, but
sometimes props were used. Practicing presenting with just your voice is
definitely a worthwhile character building experience!

------
oldmanjay
Banning things should be banned.

