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The PowerPoint Ezine - 37
by Geetesh Bajaj February
17th, 2004
Contents
Winners and Winners
A Spate of Interviews - and "Death
by PowerPoint'
Announcing PowerPoint Services
Quick News
New Content
Events & Seminars
 Winners
and Winners
There has been an amazing response from all of you about the freebies
and special offers announced in the last ezine issue. Thank you
so much.
Just by being subscribed to this
ezine, you are eligible to win all these goodies! And now, for
the new gifts:
Shyam Pillai, PowerPoint MVP is providing three (3) copies
of his amazing Handout
Wizard for PowerPoint. Natively, PowerPoint's support for handouts
is limited - you cannot format a handout to be printed beyond manipulating
few shapes on the handout master of PowerPoint. The Handout Wizard
add-in does away with all such limitations.
 There's
more! TechSmith is
giving away a copy of their new Camtasia
2 screen and video capture product that priced around US$400!
In addition, there's also one copy of SnagIt
7, their screen capture tool.
I still have another copy of Dave
Paradi's e-book on PowerPoint 2002 - The
20% You Really Need To Know About PowerPoint 2002. Dave is
a presentation guru who runs the Communicate
Using Technology site.
There are even more goodies! I've
stacked them to be announced only in the next issue!
Now for the winners - the
three copies of SnagIt 7 went to Diana Maloney, Denise McDermott
and Nick Vaidya. A copy of Dave Paradi's e-book was won by Ken
Blacksmith. Congratulations!
Back
A Spate of Interviews - and "Death by PowerPoint"
Indezine has had a spate of interviews since the last ezine issue.
We've had Dave Paradi, Patrice-Anne Rutledge, Steve Rindsberg and
Tom Atkins (in alphabetical order!) share there experiences with
PowerPoint and more. Here are some excerpts about what the four
of them have to say about "Death by PowerPoint". However,
each interview has many more questions - so do read them all!
Geetesh: Death by PowerPoint - you've heard that so
often these days. Your comments?
 Dave: There
has been a recent backlash against PowerPoint, led by Professor
Edward Tufte. He asserts that PowerPoint makes us dumb and that
it should be banned. I do not agree with his assessment of the
situation. My view is that PowerPoint is a tool and as such, can
be either poorly or intelligently used. I agree that some of the
default templates and color schemes are ineffective, but as I have
said before, "Why let the software make decisions it is not
qualified to make?" PowerPoint is a powerful tool, and if
people are educated on why certain elements should be used in certain
ways to enhance a message, I think it is a very useful tool. That's
why my objective is to educate presenters on how to use PowerPoint
effectively.
Read
more of the Dave Paradi interview...
 Patrice: I
think the problem isn’t PowerPoint itself, but the misuse
or poor use of PowerPoint. Yes, PowerPoint has become rather ubiquitous
in today’s corporate culture and we’ve all seen poorly
designed and executed PowerPoint presentations. In some cases,
PowerPoint’s ease of use makes everyone feel that they have
the skills to design a quality presentation, which isn’t necessarily
true. This is one of the reasons why my latest book on PowerPoint
has such an extensive section on how to present in addition to
how to create a presentation. Only when people start to realize
that there truly is an art to creating an effective PowerPoint
presentation will the cries of “death by PowerPoint” subside.
Read
more of the Patrice Rutledge interview...
 Steve: The
hammer again: if you whack your assistant's hand with a hammer
instead of hitting the nail he's holding for you, who does he blame?
The hammer? Of course not. Not unless you've hired a fool for a
helper.
If you whack your audience in the head with a deadly, boring presentation,
does it matter whether you created the presentation in PowerPoint
or by scribbling on overheads or by holding up a copy of your latest
book? Of course not.
And since we all know who we're talking about, I'll mention that
I own all of Edward Tufte's books. They're well thought out, beautifully
crafted and generally a reader's delight. It's puzzling and sad
that the brilliant mind behind them could be responsible for such
muddle-headed nonsense as this anti-PowerPoint campaign of his.
Read
more of the Steve Rindsberg interview...
 Tom: I'm
glad you asked that, Geetesh! In my view, the critics are still
trying to "shoot the messenger". In fact, they're sniping
at the messenger from behind a rock. It's so easy for them - first,
people love to hate Microsoft. No risk for them there. And second,
they avoid criticizing the PEOPLE who are giving these presentations,
putting the focus instead on the tools they're using. But anyone
can take a professional set of tools and build a lousy house. Since
you mention the Columbia disaster, it's my opinion that any decent
PowerPoint user could have put together a great presentation using
color and graphics that would have had a much better chance of
stopping that launch.
In short, these critics don't have the intellectual fortitude
to put the blame where it belongs: on the presenters themselves.
They'd rather act like compassionate supporters and absolve the
poor presenters by blaming it on their toolbox. Phooey. Let's take
responsibility for our own stuff!
Read more
of the Tom Atkins interview...
Back
Announcing PowerPoint Services
Indezine launched the new PowerPoint Services listing - this is
a compilation of listings for every PowerPoint related product,
service or event. The listings are free and only those who apply
get included.
Currently, there are nearly 60 categories of listings making this
the most ambitious project of its type anywhere. Use the feedback
form to get listed free.
See the listings here...
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Quick News
Read the
PowerPoint Blog here... The PowerPoint Blog now includes
the Atom syndication service so that you can use a Atom compatible
newsreader to read all postings.
Perception Is Reality - Peter Coffee, Technology Editor
at PC Magazine states: "I part company with Tufte when he
blames this kind of sloppiness on PowerPoint itself. He compares
it to a drug with 'frequent, serious side effects' of inducing
stupidity, wasting time and degrading 'the quality and credibility
of communication.' He's wrong. PowerPoint doesn't corrupt; it concentrates." Read
the full article...
Of The Medium And The Message - Aparna Ramalingam of the
Financial Express interviewed me for this article where she discusses "How
to make presentations is important. These cannot substitute for
the content, though" Read
more...
In a recent interview, political scientist and Stanford scholar Robert
Horn explores visual language and its implications for those
who use words and images, especially in PowerPoint. Read more
at the Sociable
Media site...
Macromedia Updates Breeze - Macromedia updated its Breeze
Live online meeting software, adding a host of productivity enhancements.
More info at the StreamingMediaIQ
site...
New Presentation Streaming Software - TSI Strategies introduced
a new Windows-based application that converts PowerPoint presentations
to WindowsMedia based streaming video. The software also adds voice
narration to the slideshow without significantly increasing the
file size. More
info here...
Ulead Announces DVD Workshop 2 - Ulead announced a new
version of their DVD Workshop product with several new features. More
info on the Ulead site...
Managers Toolbox for PowerPoint - Project plans, product
comparisons, scenario evaluations or process maps - managers need
to communicate their decisions and plans, and many managers use
Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to transport their message to
stakeholders and decision-makers. The Managers Toolbox for Microsoft
PowerPoint is an add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 and 2003
that helps managers to create typical management charts in seconds. More
info...
Turning Point - TurningPoint allows a professor to add
questions into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Students respond
with wireless keypads or an electronic keypad on a laptop computer.
The professor instantaneously has the responses and can use them
for grades or to gauge the understanding of the group. Read
more...
FlashPaper could outperform PDF - FlashPaper could have
a promising future but that won't be realized until the product
is unbundled from Contribute. That is not because Contribute is
expensive ($100) but because I bet users would be reluctant to
buy the whole product just for the FlashPaper component. Read
more on the Computerworld site...
The Sydney Morning Herald talks about how PowerPoint has
given confidence to mediocre public speakers, captivated the business
world and was recently implicated as one of many factors leading
to last year's Columbia space shuttle crash. Power,
up to a Point...
PowerPoint In School - Bet you didn't know a koala bear
isn't a bear at all. If you had seen Mandeville Elementary third-grader
Sarah Schneider's Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on koalas,
you'd know that a koala is more closely related to a wombat. Find
more at the Everything New Orleans site...
Back
Advertisement
PowerDesign Sets - a selection of coordinated PowerPoint templates
that go further than normal templates. PowerDesign Sets provide
you with the flexibility of variations within a particular design
- thus 50 sets can be output as 900 design possibilities!!! More
info and FREE sample PowerPoint templates here...
Learn more about advertisement
and sponsorship opportunities at Indezine.
New Content
Create Star Wars Credits in PowerPoint - George Lucas must
be so proud of Microsoft. In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, you can
now make Star Wars type animations. The text crawls from bottom
to the top, diminishing in size until it fades into oblivion. You
expect to see the Millennium Falcon zoom by at any moment. Learn
more from my tutorial at the Computor
Companion site...
The Online Rich Media Marketplace - Look into the world
of presentations and you’ll find that there is a sort of evolution
taking place. Not all presentations are shown in conference rooms
or board meetings any more. In fact, you don’t have to be
physically present in a single geographic location to view presentations. Read
the full article...
Hemera Image Express - Trust Hemera to come up with something
amazing at a price point that's so affordable and tempting that
everyone will want to join this bandwagon. We are discussing Hemera's
new Image Express, an online subscription based service that allows
you to download loads of images for a low price. Read
the full review..
Book Extract: Visual Quickstart Guide: Microsoft Office PowerPoint
2003 - The book takes an easy, visual approach to teaching
PowerPoint, using pictures to guide you through the software
and show you what to do. This extract contains the entire chapter
that deals with printing in PowerPoint. Read
here...
Book Extract: Special Edition Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 -
This book extract from Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint
2003 is an Indezine exclusive with permission from Pearson Education.
The extract is an entire chapter on working with charts in PowerPoint. Read
here...
Giving PowerPoint Pizzazz with Macromedia Flash - There
are many reasons you might want to use Flash movies in your PowerPoint
presentation, most notably to take advantage of Flash's interactive
vector animations and small file size. In some cases, you may already
have Flash movies on your Web site or intranet that you want to
incorporate into PowerPoint. Or you may want to create a Flash
movie specifically to include in a presentation, enabling you to
add some extra pizzazz to PowerPoint's existing functionality. Learn
more with Patrice-Anne Rutledge...
Craft Your Content With A KISS - For those of you who don’t
know, KISS is an acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Simplicity
gets right to the heart of communicating effectively. Learn
more in this article by Glenna Shaw...
The New Grammar of PowerPoint - The bullet-point construction
has become ubiquitous in recent years, thanks at least in part
to the PowerPoint communication revolution. Ray
Blake talks about preserving clarity in a bullet-point age...
Slides From Hell - Nowadays, of course, this god-like power
is easily available to all of us, thanks to PowerPoint and products
like it. Sadly, though, this is rarely backed up by the sort of
design aptitude and formal layout training that I’m sure the
BBC Graphics department used to insist on for its staff. How
to make truly horrendous PowerPoint Slides...
A Broken PowerPoint Culture - Cliff Atkinson looks at transforming
PowerPoint to make it a reflection of an organization's positive
attributes. Read
the article here...
How to Gain Control of Your PowerPoint Culture - Do you
control your PowerPoint culture, or does PowerPoint control you?
For many organizations, what appears to be a situation under control
is in fact a system that’s out of control. Cliff
Atkinson explains more...
Presenting a Narrated PowerPoint Show with Apreso - If
you can't be there to present your PowerPoint slideshow, let Apreso
help you provide "live" narration. Learn
more with Tom Bunzel...
MVP Blogs - Susan Bradley, a SBS (Small Business Server)
MVP (Most Valuable Professional) hosts several MVP blogs on her
site and also has an extensive list that links to other MVP blogs. Check
it here...
Back
Events & Seminars
Winning Presentations Seminar
February 19 and 20, 2004, Boston, USA
Claudyne Wilder, Wilder Presentations
http://www.wilderpresentations.com/
Presentations / Training 2004 Conference & Expo
March 1 to 3, 2003, Atlanta, USA
VNU Expositions
http://www.trainingconference.com/
PowerPoint Live
October 10 to 13, 2004, San Diego, California, USA
Rick Altman, R Altman Digital Consulting
http://www.pptlive.com/
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Credits
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance, content or feedback from Betsy Weber, Cliff
Atkinson, Dave Paradi, Glenna Shaw, Michael Koerner, Patrice Rutledge,
Ray Blake, Rick Altman, Shyam Pillai, Steve Rindsberg and Tom Atkins
(all in alphabetical order). I would like to use this platform
to thank them for their help.
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