Just Say No To PowerPoint Week

February 12th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Did you know that this week is officially “Just Say No To PowerPoint” week?

I didn’t know either, but there are plenty of references to it on the internet. I couldn’t find who, exactly, is behind this movement, but I’m willing to lend my support.

I’m not sure PowerPoint is any better or worse than any other Microsoft product, but it does inspire deep hatred in people. I wonder if this is a case of blaming the messenger… or at least the messenger’s tools.

Presentations are boring, awful things. Just because PowerPoint is the vessel that delvers these awful things to us in animated, graphical form doesn’t mean it’s PowerPoint’s fault. Maybe we just need a “Learn to Give Better Presentations” week.

Nonetheless, get your fill of PowerPoint hatred here: Ten Reasons I Hate PowerPoint

My favorites:

When is a PowerPoint not just a PowerPoint? When it’s a deck, of course! Not only do you need to master the master slide versus the build slide, you also have to learn the lingo. PowerPoint presentations are built on templates, you can populate the slides. and also embed elements. Once you are finished, you should always scrub the deck before projecting. Is it any wonder I hate PowerPoint?

And…

Why must people hand out advance hard copies of their presentations? It’s just foolish to think folks will simply “follow along” when they can flip ahead and start trashing proposals on page seventy-three when the speaker is still on five.