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I don't know how many times I've been in a meeting or on a conference call with an executive, and the exec will say something like, "Can someone open PowerPoint

I don't know how many times I've been in a meeting or on a conference call with an executive, and the exec will say something like, "Can someone open PowerPoint and start taking notes?" Not OneNote, not Word, not even freakin' Notepad. PowerPoint. For meeting notes. It's like that's the only app they can use. Is there a lobotomy that's done in business school that causes this thinking?

eternityforest 3y ago
They definitely can also use Excel. They're both awesome apps(Although PowerPoint is easy to misuse for extreme time wasting watching someone just literally read slides), so they might have a reason. I use Keep, but generally when someone has a nonsensical seeming process involving commercial GUI software it usually works fine. Kinda clunky but easier than no tech, more reliable than any custom made solution, and sometimes the other off the shelf alternatives have downsides. Maybe the meeting is being structured by a PowerPoint, and they want to take notes in the same format so that each slide in the notes corresponds to a slide in the meeting presentation or something.
postexitus 3y ago
No, because this never happened.
colejohnson66 3y ago
The same reason everyone uses Excel as a database: it's all they know, and it comes in every tier of the Office suite.
Nzen 3y ago
Perhaps this person uses it as a constrained writing environment, similar to why some people use locked down editors [0]. If I am forced to summarize the meeting onto index cards, I am obliged to keep the essence and discard the details. [0] https://hemingwrite.com/ https://hemingwrite.com/
- gumby 3y ago
  Interesting thinking, a plausible reason why someone might want to do this. Still seems terrible to me, but not everybody is the same. Thanks!
KineticLensman 3y ago
I've worked at a place where the contractor used PowerPoint to present 300 page detailed design documents. Made review really problematic. But at another place a dept head started to go blind and could no longer easily read slides. So we were all encouraged to make verbal presentations of key points. It was actually really educational, and a really powerful learning experience.
csydas 3y ago
What exactly is wrong with this? Powerpoint could easily be used for fast notes in a form that likely will be used to present to others in a similar fashion, has online storage with Microsoft 365 subscriptions, pre-made themes and privacy tags that you can set, the list goes on. I wouldn't use it personally, but compared to my usual textedit/notepad file open for fast notes or todo lists, the example powerpoint you told on likely is going to persist longer, be easily accessible by persons without my specific interaction (assuming it gets shared out to "someone"), there are a lot of benefits. I'm not a fan of powerpoint presentations in any form; I find the medium uninteresting and more of a progress meter for the current meeting than anything else, but even that hasn't been reliable for a long time to know how long a presentation will go, but I don't think using powerpoint in one of the many ways it can be used is anything bad; I'd rather that such hypothetical execs have someone put the notes into powerpoint than write it down on a paper notepad. At the end of the day, all I really care about is that I can read the notes if required and I can quickly access the data without having to bug someone after the initial permissions are set. (all this being said, I cannot express how frustrating Microsoft Office and Google Office are to me; barring powerpoints where I have no choice but to build it in one of these office suites, I usually just write plain text with markdown formatting and only use office suites to apply the necessary formatting, using the markdown as a reference; I would enjoy word/docs a lot more if there was button to "convert markdown to word formatting", and vice versa)
- fragmede 3y ago
  Google Doc's markdown mode support is limited, especially because you can't just paste a giant pile of markdown into Google Docs and have it convert properly as if you'd typed the exact same thing, but people should be aware it exists. After turning it on, I can type, eg "# heading1", and it'll convert into its version of an <h1>. https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036 https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036
  - csydas 3y ago
    Oh, thank you for sharing this :) I was not aware. I wish it "converted", but it is at least a nice starting point.
pxeger1 3y ago
Not entirely related, but I know a few people whose go-to image editor is PowerPoint.
- lesuorac 3y ago
  I definitely got a lot better with JS because of locked down thin clients. They always have a browser and being able to make requests by default with your credentials is very helpful.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
  Yep. Use a mandated Windows corporate distribution where Office is required. "Snip&Sketch" is atrocious. Much faster to open Powerpoint and doink with images there. As a note taking tool it offers alignment and other things that OneNote doesn't. In exchange, OneNote offers a lot of things I don't give a damn about.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
- fragmede 3y ago
  > since the final "product" will be a PPT, having the notes already in a PPT file means you get to skip some copy/paste steps. If the slides have been shared beforehand, keeping notes in the same file means you don't have a second file to keep track of.
thrwayaistartup 3y ago
I think it's an artifact of (1) being an all-day-meeting-person, and (2) the majority of work-product being present in PPT form. (1): Taking notes in PowerPoint is sensible if you want an entire conference room to be able to read the notes, as they are being taken, from their seats, and without any fuss about font sizes and so on. (2): Additionally, since the final "product" will be a PPT, having the notes already in a PPT file means you get to skip some copy/paste steps. It's still a bit silly and a bit of a cargo cult in the online-first world, but I get how it happens. > Not OneNote, not Word, not even freakin' Notepad. Hey, I'll take PPT brain damage over the even worse brain damage that causes some orgs to do everything in a buggy ass Salesforce version of google docs... give me MBA brain-rot bullet points over MBA brain-rot fancy versions of five paragraph essays any god damn day...
binarymax 3y ago
Never went to business school and am a hardcore nerd. Still like taking notes in ppt because I like how it forces the format of cutting things up into sections for you. Also way easier to add shapes and diagrams than any other word processor. It’s like an all-in-one canvas. It’s not for everyone though and I’m definitely aware of the negative connotations.
- fragmede 3y ago
  My approach for taking notes digitally has been using a Remarkable2, but it's a) yet another pricey electronic gadget to have/own, b) niche c) often prohibited in the corporate setting due to data privacy reasons, which means it's not a general solution, but it's a digital piece of paper, which is what I want for taking notes that need diagrams drawn inline. PowerPoint is a fairly decent mainstream app for taking notes. It lets you draw diagrams, which for the right class is indispensable. Visio is great at diagramming, but less good for taking notes. Docs/Word, to draw new diagrams around text that often gains new content as the lecture goes on, is terrible for this. If the professor shows a picture, and then just talks about it, that would be fine, but usually, the professor draws a few shapes, then talks some, then draws in arrows and more text. Having to got in and out of drawing mode, is so much worse.
morgango 3y ago
It actually makes sense if you are thinking that you will be presenting your notes back to people at some point. Two birds, one stone.

eternityforest 3y ago

They definitely can also use Excel. They're both awesome apps(Although PowerPoint is easy to misuse for extreme time wasting watching someone just literally read slides), so they might have a reason. I use Keep, but generally when someone has a nonsensical seeming process involving commercial GUI software it usually works fine. Kinda clunky but easier than no tech, more reliable than any custom made solution, and sometimes the other off the shelf alternatives have downsides. Maybe the meeting is being structured by a PowerPoint, and they want to take notes in the same format so that each slide in the notes corresponds to a slide in the meeting presentation or something.

postexitus 3y ago

No, because this never happened.

colejohnson66 3y ago

The same reason everyone uses Excel as a database: it's all they know, and it comes in every tier of the Office suite.

Nzen 3y ago

Perhaps this person uses it as a constrained writing environment, similar to why some people use locked down editors [0]. If I am forced to summarize the meeting onto index cards, I am obliged to keep the essence and discard the details. [0] https://hemingwrite.com/ https://hemingwrite.com/

gumby 3y ago
Interesting thinking, a plausible reason why someone might want to do this. Still seems terrible to me, but not everybody is the same. Thanks!

KineticLensman 3y ago

I've worked at a place where the contractor used PowerPoint to present 300 page detailed design documents. Made review really problematic. But at another place a dept head started to go blind and could no longer easily read slides. So we were all encouraged to make verbal presentations of key points. It was actually really educational, and a really powerful learning experience.

csydas 3y ago

What exactly is wrong with this? Powerpoint could easily be used for fast notes in a form that likely will be used to present to others in a similar fashion, has online storage with Microsoft 365 subscriptions, pre-made themes and privacy tags that you can set, the list goes on. I wouldn't use it personally, but compared to my usual textedit/notepad file open for fast notes or todo lists, the example powerpoint you told on likely is going to persist longer, be easily accessible by persons without my specific interaction (assuming it gets shared out to "someone"), there are a lot of benefits. I'm not a fan of powerpoint presentations in any form; I find the medium uninteresting and more of a progress meter for the current meeting than anything else, but even that hasn't been reliable for a long time to know how long a presentation will go, but I don't think using powerpoint in one of the many ways it can be used is anything bad; I'd rather that such hypothetical execs have someone put the notes into powerpoint than write it down on a paper notepad. At the end of the day, all I really care about is that I can read the notes if required and I can quickly access the data without having to bug someone after the initial permissions are set. (all this being said, I cannot express how frustrating Microsoft Office and Google Office are to me; barring powerpoints where I have no choice but to build it in one of these office suites, I usually just write plain text with markdown formatting and only use office suites to apply the necessary formatting, using the markdown as a reference; I would enjoy word/docs a lot more if there was button to "convert markdown to word formatting", and vice versa)

fragmede 3y ago
Google Doc's markdown mode support is limited, especially because you can't just paste a giant pile of markdown into Google Docs and have it convert properly as if you'd typed the exact same thing, but people should be aware it exists. After turning it on, I can type, eg "# heading1", and it'll convert into its version of an <h1>. https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036 https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036
- csydas 3y ago
  Oh, thank you for sharing this :) I was not aware. I wish it "converted", but it is at least a nice starting point.

pxeger1 3y ago

Not entirely related, but I know a few people whose go-to image editor is PowerPoint.

lesuorac 3y ago
I definitely got a lot better with JS because of locked down thin clients. They always have a browser and being able to make requests by default with your credentials is very helpful.
OldGuyInTheClub 3y ago
Yep. Use a mandated Windows corporate distribution where Office is required. "Snip&Sketch" is atrocious. Much faster to open Powerpoint and doink with images there. As a note taking tool it offers alignment and other things that OneNote doesn't. In exchange, OneNote offers a lot of things I don't give a damn about.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

fragmede 3y ago
> since the final "product" will be a PPT, having the notes already in a PPT file means you get to skip some copy/paste steps. If the slides have been shared beforehand, keeping notes in the same file means you don't have a second file to keep track of.

thrwayaistartup 3y ago

I think it's an artifact of (1) being an all-day-meeting-person, and (2) the majority of work-product being present in PPT form. (1): Taking notes in PowerPoint is sensible if you want an entire conference room to be able to read the notes, as they are being taken, from their seats, and without any fuss about font sizes and so on. (2): Additionally, since the final "product" will be a PPT, having the notes already in a PPT file means you get to skip some copy/paste steps. It's still a bit silly and a bit of a cargo cult in the online-first world, but I get how it happens. > Not OneNote, not Word, not even freakin' Notepad. Hey, I'll take PPT brain damage over the even worse brain damage that causes some orgs to do everything in a buggy ass Salesforce version of google docs... give me MBA brain-rot bullet points over MBA brain-rot fancy versions of five paragraph essays any god damn day...

binarymax 3y ago

Never went to business school and am a hardcore nerd. Still like taking notes in ppt because I like how it forces the format of cutting things up into sections for you. Also way easier to add shapes and diagrams than any other word processor. It’s like an all-in-one canvas. It’s not for everyone though and I’m definitely aware of the negative connotations.

fragmede 3y ago
My approach for taking notes digitally has been using a Remarkable2, but it's a) yet another pricey electronic gadget to have/own, b) niche c) often prohibited in the corporate setting due to data privacy reasons, which means it's not a general solution, but it's a digital piece of paper, which is what I want for taking notes that need diagrams drawn inline. PowerPoint is a fairly decent mainstream app for taking notes. It lets you draw diagrams, which for the right class is indispensable. Visio is great at diagramming, but less good for taking notes. Docs/Word, to draw new diagrams around text that often gains new content as the lecture goes on, is terrible for this. If the professor shows a picture, and then just talks about it, that would be fine, but usually, the professor draws a few shapes, then talks some, then draws in arrows and more text. Having to got in and out of drawing mode, is so much worse.

morgango 3y ago

It actually makes sense if you are thinking that you will be presenting your notes back to people at some point. Two birds, one stone.