Once upon a time not so long ago, there was a little boy who went to the market to try to sell his wares. He wasn't having any luck. "Who will buy my sweet red roses? Two blooms for a penny," he sang out hauntingly.
A young man came along, full of soft-spoken enthusiasm. "I can give you a great tool that will help you sell your roses. I can design this fabulous new application to help you get your message across. I can give you templates, hundreds of pretty clipart. You can create your presentations in blazingly brilliant colours with glorious animation. I can?"
"But, sir (kind knighted sir), they're only roses?"
"Ah, don't you see. What you need are pretty pictures, snappy words. Then, you can sell anything." The young man started singing, "If you give them a bit of the razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle them. You've got to razzle dazzle them. Today the roses, tomorrow the world!"
And so marked the birth of slide show presentation software. (Sorry, guys. That was just a bit of unconfirmed rumour).
What is true, however, is how much slide show presentation software such as PowerPoint has revolutionised the business world. Company forecasts are now disseminated in presentations (complete with video clip, animation and sound). Staff meetings are run in slide shows. Project status meetings are driven by presentation slides. Even courtesy signs are printed using presentation software. You know the ones I mean: "Please Ensure You Have Flushed Before You Leave!" on the toilet doors and "Please clean up after yourself. Your mother does NOT work here!" over the kitchen sinks.
I confess. I have cultivated a doomed PowerPoint dependency over time. I've spent countless hours tinkering with the graphics, experimenting with 100 shades of blue and resizing 500 different tiny icons until they were the identical size. More tragically, I've worked into the dead of the night typing, deleting and retyping to come up with just the right word ? one that's concise, punchy and easy on the eye. Commenced?no. On track?oooh. Ahead of schedule?hmm. Completed? YES! After all, "Preliminary high-level design specifications ? Completed" is easier on the eye than "Design Specification ? Commenced".
One of my corporate-ignoramis friends was not so convinced. According to her, if presentation software really was the greatest thing since sliced bread, then one must be able to do a lot more with the application. It must become an indispensable part of modern civilisation. She set me a challenge, which I accepted (all too hastily). It meant that last weekend, armed with my laptop and my all-in-one scanner-printer-copier, I made the following five things for home:
The same day I presented my 9-year-old niece with her "certificate of achievement", she thanked me with her own presentation for me (and a very pretty and professional looking one at that). The feature slide looked like this:
Why I deserve a NEW PC:
It got me thinking. Somewhere along the line, we have turned everything into presentations and slides shows as though every piece of communication is a sales pitch. I suppose I'm not intrinsically against the presentation software. After all, it is just a tool ? not the Devil incarnate. It is us, the intelligent users, who control the quality of our communication (with or without the aid of the presentation software). Quality comes from following the fundamentals like: keep the presentation points to the point, don't bore the audience, don't read from the slide, avoid excessive jargon, don't dumb down the actual speech and, most of all, content matters.
The folly lies in the well-intentioned experimenters who insist on cramming the page with either whiz-bang animations or smearing the page with linguistic tripe. Whoosh, another bullet point shoots across the page. Whoosh, I've forgotten what the presenter just said.
So, let's make a pact that we shall never bore each other with show-and-tell-a-thons. We shall never try to bamboozle each other with impressive looking slides. We shall never swamp presentations with meaningless graphics or management-speak jargons. We cannot let a piece of software get the better of us.
In the mean time, I can't wait for the introduction of the 'Resume Template'. Perhaps it will come in Productivity Service Pack 143.
About The Author
Nancy Huang works as a business consultant and project manager. She enjoys writing in her spare time and is keen to be write on demand and be more widely published.
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
Microsoft Retail Management System serves retail single store as well... Read More
Whether you need to close a sale, gather end-user feedback,... Read More
Formatting and reinstalling windows 98 is very easy if you... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions. If... Read More
When you double-click a layer in the Layer Palette, you... Read More
Microsoft bought Navision, Denmark based software development company, along with... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision, Axapta,... Read More
... Read More
eStore Advantage allows front-office applications to communicate with back-office business... Read More
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy and processes used... Read More
Following tips help you to learn a software in lesser... Read More
Fleet Maintenance Management is a critical position in any company... Read More
In order to meet regulatory and corporate compliance requirements reporting... Read More
Now there are Three Steps To Heaven Just listen and... Read More
Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is... Read More
The research in the field of Natural Language Processing usually... Read More
.NET platform does not support multiple inheritance. Do not confuse... Read More
Considering whether or not your software company should hire a... Read More
Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their... Read More
In the new era of internet marketing the problem of... Read More
Handling character strings in Java is supported through two final... Read More
IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management)... Read More
Most people don't use Photoshop to its fullest capabilities. Here... Read More
There are two approaches for application integration:? Programmer's approach ?... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft Business Solutions accounting and ERP... Read More
Three highly respected names in Human Resources have joined forces... Read More
Microsoft CRM is winning market share step-by-step from such the... Read More
Sales are all about leverage, because there is only so... Read More
An integral part of any quality CRM system is lead... Read More
MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More
Introduction: The creating of a computer program involves a number... Read More
In this small article we will be looking at the... Read More
The term "document management" and "paperless office" is the subject... Read More
You turn on your computer, and it doesn't look quite... Read More
At the end of XX century, in the late 1990th... Read More
Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without... Read More
Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main accounting / ERP application... Read More
IntroductionSurprised, by the title? well, this is a tour of... Read More
How many steps does it take you to locate and... Read More
CD and DVD replication is a process that works by... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft Business Solutions accounting and ERP... Read More
How would you like to prevent spyware and adware from... Read More
Linux essentials:It's free for download but you have to pay... Read More
#5 All your hardware components like Printers, PCs etc come... Read More
What is installation in the language of technology? Installation... Read More
If you've been using MySQL database to store your important... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains version 8.5, 8.0, 7.5, Great... Read More
Spyware and malware are large problems for Internet users today... Read More
If you have been using the Internet for any amount... Read More
Hi, Guys,I believe a lot of programmers are trying to... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Today's business world is fast-paced. No matter what it is... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being... Read More
When you visit department stores and see that majority of... Read More
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Overview covers What is ERP, Brief... Read More
The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange... Read More
In the case when you represent mid-size or mid-size-to-large business,... Read More
MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. the leading solutions provider in the area... Read More
Microsoft CRM ? Client Relationship Management package from Microsoft Business... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies... Read More
When my daughter was getting into AOL instant messaging (AIM)... Read More
Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is written in Great Plains... Read More
The COSMIC FP (function point) software quality metric, is no... Read More
This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More
Software |