Sacred Cow #4: Using {feature} Or {plugin} Will Make Me Look Savvy.

14Apr/091

Sacred Cow #4: Using {feature} Or {plugin} Will Make Me Look Savvy.

This sacred cow is such a no-brainer that it begs the question of whether it is in fact a sacred cow or that it's just poor amateurish judgement. It's one of the reasons why many people hate slideware. The answer to this isn't so clear-cut. In many cases it is the latter. In those, it's just someone who merely didn't know any better and could easily be talked down from the ledge.

In some cases, though, it's dogma. It's the manager who wants "cool." It's these people that see it as gospel that to wow your audience, you need to wow them with your mad PowerPoint skills. It's these people who are more concerned with you having slides that "look good" rather than slides that get the message across effectively.

You'll also find that people who hold onto these sacred cows get excited about new transitions and animations in the latest version of PowerPoint (or Keynote). Walls of flame, sparkles, anything that glows, glitters, flies, slides, or makes noise is considered progress and essential to that next great presentation.

This sacred cow is even represented by unbridled excitement for upcoming tools like pptPlex and Prezi. While they do have that "wow" factor and they could in fact be used to make highly effective visuals, they'll more often than not be used inappropriately. Not too long from now, we'll see these tools used with the frequency and in a manner such that the daily stream of cursing of PowerPoint that I see in Twitter will also be directed at these tools.

I'm no luddite. I truly believe that these features and tools, if used with restraint and the effectiveness of the message as the prime consideration, can be very powerful tools in our tool box. However, it's those believers in this fourth sacred cow who take it as a given that flash and shock and awe are the keys to great presentations. What these people need to learn is that the secret to this sacred cow is that pig with lipstick is still a pig.

Image credit: emilylt, used under a Creative Commons license.

Tagged as: Keynote, PowerPoint, sacred cow Leave a comment

Valentin M. Ramos

So true on so many levels. I'll take this opportunity to stress the one point you touched on - the best ppt is invisible. It facilitates the presentation, allows for the best delivery of information - not create a distraction from it. If the audience walks away and the only thing they remember is how "cool" the animation was and none of the content, then the presentation fails.