I love reading tech articles that find faults with products. A fanboy is blinded, a critical eye can give a pragmatic view of things that fanboys will often overlook. I came across a link titled “The Problem With PowerPoint”, since PowerPoint is my favorite software, I decided to read what the author had to say. Apparently, the link was of an article on BBC so I felt that this should be something really worth my time. I quickly scrolled down to find the points & this is what is wrong with PowerPoint according to the author:
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SCREENS ARE MAGNETS FOR EVERYONE’S EYES
Beware of anyone who says that they’re “just going to talk to some slides” – because that’s exactly what they’ll do – without realising that they’re spending most of their time with their backs to the audience.
- READING AND LISTENING DISTRACTS AUDIENCES
If there’s nothing but text on the screen, people will try to read and listen at the same time – and won’t succeed in doing either very well.
- INFORMATION OVERLOAD
You think bullet points make information more digestible? Think again.
- SLIDES SHOULDN’T JUST BE NOTES
Few speakers are willing to open their mouths until they have their first slide safely in place.
- THE BULLET POINT PROBLEM
A Microsoft executive recently said that one of the best PowerPoint presentations he’d ever heard had no slides with bullet points on them.
Now, being someone who uses PowerPoint I re-read the article to find any damn relevance to Microsoft PowerPoint. I found it! And here it is:
The trouble is that PowerPoint makes it so easy to put detailed written and numerical information on slides that it leads presenters into the mistaken belief that all the detail will be successfully transmitted through the air into the brains of the audience.
Excuse me but… hahahhahha ROFLOLMAO! Seriously?! The problem with a product is that it makes it easier to put detailed information! Other than this little price-less nugget of information regarding PowerPoint, there is absolutely no relevance with the title — “The problem with PowerPoint”. The whole article talks about how to make a presentation or what one should NOT do when making a presentation. I’m not even talking about how basic these points are!
And I always thought that Indian columnists knew squat about tech.
BBC, I know you guys, the media, is going through a crisis but c’mon. I mean you guys don’t need to act like VentureBeat or TechCrunch or The Register. Stop being such click whores!
Here is the article in question.