PowerPoint is 20 Years Old
Thursday, June 21st, 2007Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal writes about the “dark side of success of the creators of the program PowerPoint”. Originally created for the Mac in 1987, it was Microsoft’s first company acquisition for $14 Million. PowerPoint has since powered it’s way to becoming a standard tool in today’s corporate meetings. It is loved and hated, but used by millions daily. Go to any corporate or hotel conference room in the world today and chances are you will find PowerPoint slides on a screen.
It is easy enough to use that anyone can make a PowerPoint presentation, but not everyone can make a presentation that will help close a billion dollar deal or change the course of history. Smart people know to go to Professional Graphic designers when they need to an important message to be communicated effectively.
The most famous criticism of PowerPoint has come from Ed Tufte. Lee Gomes addresses this with one of the creators of PowerPoint. Robert Gaskins responds with an answer I totally agree with: “Perhaps the most scathing criticism comes from the Yale graphics guru Edward Tufte, who says the software “elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.” He even suggested PowerPoint played a role in the Columbia shuttle disaster, as some vital technical news was buried in an otherwise upbeat slide.
No quarrel from Mr. Gaskins: “All the things Tufte says are absolutely true. People often make very bad use of PowerPoint.”
Mr. Gaskins reminds his questioner that a PowerPoint presentation was never supposed to be the entire proposal, just a quick summary of something longer and better thought out. He cites as an example his original business plan for the program: 53 densely argued pages long. The dozen or so slides that accompanied it were but the highlights.”
Read the entire, excellent article at this WSJ link:
“PowerPoint Turns 20, As It’s Creators Ponder A Dark Side to Success”
by Lee Gomes, June 20, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118228116940840904.html
