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

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