3 ms·

I don't get it. Powerpoint is literally perfect. There are no downsides. It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations. Personally, I always use

I don't get it. Powerpoint is literally perfect. There are no downsides. It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations. Personally, I always use the default theme (Black Calibri text on white background), with no animations or transitions. The included drawing tools are also world class, and help get your point across as long as you don't make it too complex.

arbie 9y ago
> I don't get it. Powerpoint is literally perfect. There are no downsides. It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations. Only if you can refrain from the Design tab, something that MS seems to emphasize with every update.
- btschaegg 9y ago
  Oh yes. This. I mean, if I'm looking at a presentation on some topic, I could't care less about what the author used as a tool, as long as it works properly. But what some people inflict on others with their "designed" slides is just beyond cruel. And honestly: If there are people that can present complex algorithms on a black and white slideset - and there are astoundingly good presentations that do this! - you can keep it simple, too. No reason to use ugly pixelated (and stolen!) ClipArt, ugly background images that clash with the foreground etc. Yuck.
aqsalose 9y ago
>It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations That's why I like LaTeX Beamer (at least as long as I don't need anything else in my presentation other than bullet point text and some math): in LaTeX, writing text and equations is relatively easy, but everything else (complicated animations? messing with the default style?) requires non-significant amount of work ... thus the presentations created with Beamer tend to be simple and beautiful.
zafiro17 9y ago
Ideally, it's best practice to create two things: the powerpoint presentation that allows you to exhibit diagrams and charts that illustrate what you are saying, but then secondly a handout that puts in text what you've said, and includes the same diagrams. You speak your piece, using PPT to show diagrams only, not slide-after-slide of words (the words are coming from your mouth). That means the PPT as a handout is useless, and you have to create a separate 3 page (or so) text document that also includes the graphics. That however is extra work - and a lot of extra time, and hardly anyone does it. The real culprit here is the "time saving shortcut" of simply printing out your PPT as a handout. In order to make it useful, you need the words on the slides. Now you've got slide-after-slide of bullet point lists and text, and that urges you to commit the second sin, which is turning your back to the audience and reading the slides from the stage. To automatically to revert to good form, the trick is to realize there are three things: the words you speak, the images you project on the screen, and a handout that combines both. That allows PPT to revert to what it is truly good at, which is showing pictures on the screen. But ... it's more work!
bsder 9y ago
Powerpoint is not useful for engineering presentations. The problem is that most engineers SUCK at presentations. Consequently, Powerpoint looks useful because it forces an absolute minimum of organization onto shitty presenters. To me, having a flip chart and/or whiteboard (preferably with ruled squares) is a necessity for a useful engineering presentation. I can operate in Powerpoint, but it requires a lot more effort. If I have to use Powerpoint for an engineering presentation, I'm either A) being forced by somebody in management or B) plan to give the presentation multiple times. In case B), I can amortize the time I have to waste putting the presentation into "Powerpoint Normal Form" over several iterations.

arbie 9y ago

> I don't get it. Powerpoint is literally perfect. There are no downsides. It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations. Only if you can refrain from the Design tab, something that MS seems to emphasize with every update.

btschaegg 9y ago
Oh yes. This. I mean, if I'm looking at a presentation on some topic, I could't care less about what the author used as a tool, as long as it works properly. But what some people inflict on others with their "designed" slides is just beyond cruel. And honestly: If there are people that can present complex algorithms on a black and white slideset - and there are astoundingly good presentations that do this! - you can keep it simple, too. No reason to use ugly pixelated (and stolen!) ClipArt, ugly background images that clash with the foreground etc. Yuck.

aqsalose 9y ago

>It's up to you to not overdo the designs and the animations That's why I like LaTeX Beamer (at least as long as I don't need anything else in my presentation other than bullet point text and some math): in LaTeX, writing text and equations is relatively easy, but everything else (complicated animations? messing with the default style?) requires non-significant amount of work ... thus the presentations created with Beamer tend to be simple and beautiful.

zafiro17 9y ago

Ideally, it's best practice to create two things: the powerpoint presentation that allows you to exhibit diagrams and charts that illustrate what you are saying, but then secondly a handout that puts in text what you've said, and includes the same diagrams. You speak your piece, using PPT to show diagrams only, not slide-after-slide of words (the words are coming from your mouth). That means the PPT as a handout is useless, and you have to create a separate 3 page (or so) text document that also includes the graphics. That however is extra work - and a lot of extra time, and hardly anyone does it. The real culprit here is the "time saving shortcut" of simply printing out your PPT as a handout. In order to make it useful, you need the words on the slides. Now you've got slide-after-slide of bullet point lists and text, and that urges you to commit the second sin, which is turning your back to the audience and reading the slides from the stage. To automatically to revert to good form, the trick is to realize there are three things: the words you speak, the images you project on the screen, and a handout that combines both. That allows PPT to revert to what it is truly good at, which is showing pictures on the screen. But ... it's more work!

bsder 9y ago

Powerpoint is not useful for engineering presentations. The problem is that most engineers SUCK at presentations. Consequently, Powerpoint looks useful because it forces an absolute minimum of organization onto shitty presenters. To me, having a flip chart and/or whiteboard (preferably with ruled squares) is a necessity for a useful engineering presentation. I can operate in Powerpoint, but it requires a lot more effort. If I have to use Powerpoint for an engineering presentation, I'm either A) being forced by somebody in management or B) plan to give the presentation multiple times. In case B), I can amortize the time I have to waste putting the presentation into "Powerpoint Normal Form" over several iterations.