PowerPoint : Loved and Hated in Equal Measure

Given the ephemeral nature of the fast paced digital world that we live in,  it is not everyday that you come across a software that has lasted 32 years and is still going strong.  Robert Gaskins, who is widely credited as one of the inventors of the PowerPoint idea [1], recounts the history of this software in a BBC Interview. Many might find it ironical that PowerPoint initially debuted in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh computers. Forethought Inc, the startup that had created PowerPoint, was in the same year, acquired by Microsoft but PowerPoint somehow entered the Microsoft windows stable only after three years of that acquisition. The rest, as they say is history. Nerds can visit Robert Gaskin’s home page for a rich collection of facts, photos and videos detailing the history and development of this legendary software.

PowerPoint has since become the ‘ruling deity’ of the presentation universe churning out the good, the bad and the ugly slide decks by the thousands every single day. And with all that action underway, making good presentations has become an essential survival skill. A frequently asked question in this backdrop is – what does it take to create a killer presentation? The short answer is – a powerful idea! And if you have that idea, PowerPoint with its rich collection of tools, can help you weave it into a compelling storyboard. Readers are invited to view 25 awesome presentations (which includes one by Seth Godin on making good presentations!) to see for themselves how PowerPoint has acted as a via media to tell really compelling stories. One common design principle that you can’t miss in each of these presentations is the minimal use of text and the maximum use of visuals. Writers like Nancy Duarte even use PowerPoint to write books !

PowerPoint, with all its wholesome goodness however, has attracted its fair share of detractors too! The problems related to what some would call the detrimental effects of using (or overusing!) PowerPoint are nicely summarized in a January 2018 article on BBC ( has a link to an interesting Podcast too!). This criticism of PowerPoint is not a one off observation but rather has a long history. One of the prominent voices highlighting concern over the use (or overuse) of PowerPoint for many years has been former Yale Professor Edward Tufte. In two very widely read essays – PowerPoint Is Evil and the Cognitive Style of PowerPoint – Tufte argues his case against PowerPoint famously remarking – “Power Corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely”. A New York Times article titled We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint by Elisabeth Bumiller narrates how the PowerPoint culture has slowly entrenched the US Armed forces and how top military commanders have shown their deep concern over this phenomenon. An article by Alan Lu follows a similar trajectory and raises some serious concerns about the unbridled use of PowerPoint from college lecture halls to corporate boardrooms. It might surprise many that the blame for the loss of space shuttle Columbia in which Kalpana Chawla and other astronauts tragically lost their lives has also been attributed to a PowerPoint Slide !   Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has in fact gone so far as to completely ban PowerPoint at all meetings inside Amazon !  PowerPoints from morning to evening, day after day , kinda dumb you ( 2 million views!), don't they? 

Not everyone agrees though. David Silverman, in his Harvard Business Review article has attempted to put things in a different perspective arguing that the root cause of the ‘PowerPoint problem’ lies in the fact that more often than not, PowerPoint is used in situations for which it is not suited and in ways that are not consistent with this style of communication.

Arguments and counter arguments notwithstanding, PowerPoint is alive & well and is here to stay. Many feel that it is a great piece of software if you know how to use it effectively. I would like to invite the reader to spend time viewing these great tips and resources to create effective PowerPoint presentations.

The bottom-line is that PowerPoint should not be seen as an end in itself but as a means to an end which is to communicate your point across convincingly to your audience. Whenever you forget this simple truth and get lost in the glitz of bouncing shapes and swiveling transitions, you usually end up wishing that you could exit with the ‘fade’ effect.


 Edward Tufte sums this up rather nicely:

“If your words or images are not on point, making them dance in color won’t make them relevant”.

I conclude this post with a poignant comment by David Grupper and David Klein of Point Made Animation Inc:

“Technology can dictate content in PowerPoint. Its default slide will inevitably lead to bad design in the hands of the inexperienced. How can ‘headline, bullet, bullet, bullet' lead anywhere else? But, as my father used to say – a bad workman blames his tools. PowerPoint is no more responsible for a boring presentation than Microsoft Word is to blame for a poorly written novel”.

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[1] Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin were the other two people who were involved in creating PowerPoint

[2] Image Credit: www.presentationzen.com