Power Point Stupidity

David Byrne says PowerPoint’s medium is the message and Edward Tufte says PowerPoint is Evil. David Coursey has some good tips on using it (after surmising “does PowerPoint make us stupid?”) But, his tips are really for advanced users. Let’s start simple.

Remember, trees die for your slides (assuming you print them). If I see another slide with a single sentence on it in 48-point font, I may cry. Not because of the excruciating boredom, nor the overwhelming stupidity of such an action, but because somewhere there is a little less forest because of one sentence that some moron thought was important enough to put on a slide all its own. If it’s not the answer to world peace or ridding us of Dubya (which are probably the same thing), it’s not worth having on its own slide.

Audio on your slides is stupid. At absolute maximum you may use one single sound-effect to punctuate a joke or point but any more is immodest use of the program, an obvious waste of time, and embarassingly simple. I saw a presentation given to upper management once that was rife with audio clips and it was unbelievable. I pitied the person giving the presentation but they thought it was great. The message it sends is “I spent a whole lot of time adding all these fun little clips … aren’t they fun? Hehe! Fun little clips!”

Animations on your slides are dangerous. I see presentations with those little animated gif’s that cycle over and over again and it draws me deep, deeper, deeper still into the animation and away from the presenter. Maybe it’s the repetition, the endless repetition of the simple repetitive action, but I can hardly tear my eyes away. What were you saying?

Fly-ins are permitted only along one axis. Most presentations don’t need flyins at all, but should you really need to use them to accentuate a particularly moving point, do so with extreme caution. No swirling skateboarder corkscrews or words and graphics flying from north, south, east and west. Pick a side, any side, and stick with it. using multiple angles of approach is again less impressive than demonstrating restraint, focus and commitment to the information, not the PowerPoint.

As a rule, the more “fun” you add to your presentation, the less fun it will actually be to observe. “Fun” presentations are untidy conglomerations of information ensconsed in childlike baubles. Remember what the point of your presentation is – to get an idea across, not to entertain the audience.