

PowerPoint Does Rocket Science (2006) - cogware
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1

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sitkack
PowerPoint is a NASA (and bureaucratic) symptom. MS delivered what the
customer wanted. They want hamburgers not Steak Tartare.

Bad powerpoint didn't stop people from failing to communicate the risks to the
Challenger.

> The format reflects a common conceptual error in analytic design:
> information architectures mimic the hierarchical structure of large
> bureaucracies pitching the information.

I'd quote more Tufte here but I am too lazy to type it in, the essay is a
jpeg.

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sdk16420
> The rigid slide-by-slide hierarchies slice and dice the evidence into
> arbitrary compartments

Is there something like a combination of PowerPoint and Prezi? Just one
continous vertical slide where you just scroll down during a presentation.

Also, using a PDF (created in InDesign for example) is a great alternative to
if you don't need videos or animations. Plus compatibility is way better.

~~~
wtallis
You _can_ have videos, animations, and fancy transitions in a PDF slide deck
if you're willing to present with Adobe Reader, and the same file can provide
graceful fallback for other readers and printing. And pretty much all PDF
readers handle internal hyperlinks just fine, so you're never limited to just
a static linear presentation.

Whether you _should_ use those features is another question, but I've had a
few occasions to do things like embed a 3d model in a presentation.

------
mapcar
So what's better?

~~~
wtallis
Write your talk first, then decide what graphics need to accompany it.
PowerPoint tempts you to do it the other way around. Also, give the audience a
short handout (eg. single page double-sided) that has a summary in prose
rather than bullets and includes key graphics as needed. Never print a slide
deck as a handout.

It's okay to make an outline in the early stages of preparing your talk, but
you can't just paginate and decorate that outline and call it a presentation.
The audience should never see that outline, since it's supposed to just be an
organizational tool for you to prepare the real presentation.

Once you've got your presentation actually planned and you've collected the
materials you want to project onto the big screen, then PowerPoint might be a
reasonable choice for displaying them, but actually using the PowerPoint
program should be one of the last and shortest steps. Or you might find that
everything that needs to be explained visually can fit on your handout.

