There is a special place in hell...

[rivka]

...for the person who just sent me an announcement about a grantwriting workshop for junior faculty and fellows.

In the form of an e-mail attachment.

Of a Powerpoint file.

There was nothing - nothing - in the attachment that couldn't have been conveyed in plain text in an e-mail. There weren't even any photographs or diagrams.

A special place in hell, I'm telling you.

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Powerpoint, in general, should be taken out and shot. I've yet to see a .ppt that wouldn't be better presented as a handout.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My aunt, who was sixty at her last birthday, teaches history of art to adults, as courses of lectures. She used to use slides to show paintings.

She now uses Powerpoint as if it were a high tech version of slides for showing paintings -- look, a painting. Look, this is a bit of the painting blown up. Look, I'll put another bit of a different painting next to it so you can see the influence. Here are the two paintings together. See how this blue is different from that blue. Let this Japanese print fade into this Monet so you can see the influence. Look at the way this figure is standing, and now this figure. Look at the hands.

This is clearly what Powerpoint was born for.

I used to feel exactly as you did, and think the thing was entirely misconceived and would be better replaced with a whiteboard and a handout, but I have changed my mind after seeing her programs. It clearly needs to get out of the office and into the art-room.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Ok, argument made - THAT is a good use for Powerpoint, and far less cumbersome than boxes of slides and a projector.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

My former boss had me create a slideshow that showed how the company's IT systems had accumulated over time, which was a helpful way to show how an acquisition could affect a lot of other systems. It also made it easier to visualize how a prospective new project could help multiple other systems.

That's about the only thing I ever really used it for, although I did whip up a quick-and-dirty org chart with it a couple of times. Mostly, I've tried to avoid it, but I think it can have some limited uses.