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Powerpoint Can Make You Crazy

By Jim Symcox on Sep 8, 2007 in powerpoint, Seth Godin

Microsoft PowerPoint

Powerpoint is a great tool in the right hands.

I’m sure that like me you’ve sat through interminable Powerpoint presentations where the presenter has seemed keen to use every single tool available in Powerpoint. You know what I mean…

New Powerpoint slides sliding in from the left, dropping down from above, or exploding onto the screen

Slides that show everything about a subject on one slide
Slides that people simply read directly from as though we’re not way ahead of them
Slides with cute colours that make the text invisible from more than 5 feet away
Music which is unrelated or unwanted or both
Complex slide animation with letters flying in from all over the place building up text which we all guessed after the first word
Complicated statistics with no point to them
Graphs with no point to them
Pictures that are totally unrelated to the task at hand

I could go…

Instead wouldn’t it be better to do it so that people enjoy the presentation?

I think so…

So does Seth Godin, check out his post on Powerpoint Data Presentation – if you’re in sales this is particularly right for you.