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September 11, 2005
PowerPoint Alternatives - From Browsers to Blogs, Part I
I guess you could say that most people have a love-hate relationship with PowerPoint. Ever since PowerPoint became the de facto standard in presentation software, presenters have been looking for an alternative. When the web came along, many speakers tried using HTML to compile presentations. For those who were comfortable in HTML, it was an easy way to create the materials to be projected during the presentation, and also made it a simple matter to distribute those materials, complete with live links, for participants to view after the session was over. For those who weren't comfortable in HTML, well, they were out of luck. There were other downsides as well, as Rich Wiggins details in his article "Will the Web Browser Replace Powerpoint?", Internet Outlook, Oct. 1, 1997.
HTML presentations can be useful for presenting with a live, reliable Internet connection so that instead of screenshots, you simply link to the live web sites. But if you decide to incorporate screenshots or downloaded web pages, things quickly get much more complicated.
I have typically used HTML to create a web page to supplement or replace handouts. I like not having to mess with paper, or worry about how many copies to bring. I can also continue to tweak it until the very last minute. But the best thing about HTML handouts is that I can go back and add information on questions that came up during the session, or add new resources I learn about later. Though I must admit, it seems inevitable that attendees are happier if they have paper in hand. Not a problem, I often print the web page to provide them with just that while encouraging them to go to the web page for updated information.
I have used HTML for the presentation itself, but found that it got old fast. Several years ago I used HTML to create PowerPoint like slides, with navigation forward and backward. Why? I still ask myself that question. I suppose I thought it would be a useful format for after the presentation viewing. The problem was, it took a lot more time that I expected.
The fact is, I usually want the security of knowing I have the screenshots saved in my PowerPoint, just in case the Internet connection doesn't function as expected. Though this is much less of a problem than it used to be, I still want the backup. And PowerPoint is particularly quick and easy to use to display screenshots.
But others have stuck with HTML, and are quite content. Jessamyn West still uses HTML as a PowerPoint alternative, and has a template that is available for others to use. You can take a look at any of her presentations to see how this works. It's simple, basic, and creates good post-presentation web pages for later reference.
Still loving PowerPoint regardless of what Edward Tuft and the Washington Post have to say? Then you'll want to bookmark Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell's recent article in Law Practice Today, Powerful Pointers for Presenters", which lists all the web sites you'll ever need to help put together your next presentation.
Coming up...Part II, Using Blogs as Presentation Tools.
Comments
Maybe it's not so much the application that turns people off as the way presentations have traditionally been designed. A few months ago, I discovered a blog by Cliff Atkinson that has been a breath of fresh air to me. The blog is "beyond bullets", http://www.beyondbullets.com/, based on his book, "Beyond Bullet Points". His approach is to take the content of your presentation off the slides and replace it with a single graphic or a very small amount of words which will peak the imaginations of your audience and help them to concentrate on what you say. What?! Not be able to rely on my slides for my talking points?!
My apologies for straying away from the topic of applications for presentations.
Posted by: Janet McKinney at September 20, 2005 09:44 AM
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