TNR‘s Open University is reviving the age-old discussion of how awful PowerPoint is. (Cf. Gettysburg address told in PPT.) I’ve gotta dissent. I just think people use it wrong.
As a reporter/producer, I never had to make presentations. I told stories with images, audio, and text — using Flash, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Word, and the like. My first month at the Star Tribune, I found myself having to use PowerPoint. Initially disdainful, I sniffed around for a few PPT tutorials, and stumbled across this blog. As well as provided helpful tips, the blog espoused an approach to PowerPoint that helped me to see it as just another storytelling medium.
The PowerPoint I created last October still lives on in bits and pieces today, in presentations I’ve given all over the Twin Cities. And I always get pretty good reviews.
7 comments
What? No link to your PowerPoint, Matt?
Whoah, yes! I second that!
I probably should have mentioned that despite its worth as a storytelling medium, PowerPoint is best paired with live performance. So until someone records me doing my compliment-winning PPT, y’all are out of luck.
Actually, the problem with Matt’s PowerPoint is that it’s actually so good that it distracts from what he’s saying (which is exceptionally hard to do). Seriously, when he was done with his presentation, I was asking, “Where’d you get that one photo?”
i want to get a ppt on love.can you help me out please?
Excellent article. Interesting subject.
I wnt ppt on LOVE.