Good Essay on When Not to Use PowerPoint

I firmly believe that PowerPoint is overused in the workplace. Many people seem to use it as a crutch or -- and this is really a pet peeve of mine -- simply read off the slides. Edward R. Tufte's essay The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within reinforced many of my beliefs:

Slides were not meant for large amounts of data. You either lose something by cramming it into a slide or the slide so packed with numbers it is not useful.
PowerPoint presentations are not meant to be read later nor should they be posted on your internal corporate website. It is a presentation and something should be lost without a speaker to clarify the content of the slides.
Bullet lists dilute thought through unnecessary categorization. Yes, I know that I am using a list right now. However, not all data or information should be presented with bullet points. The book gives a great example of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address being broken down into a slideshow with graphs and bullet points. Picture it. You don't even have to see it to know that it is ridiculous. Not everything translates to that format nor should it.

The essay, which is also available in Tufte's book Beautiful Evidence, provides some excellent examples of PowerPoint presentations gone wrong. It gave me a wealth of talking points and ideas for advocating for fewer PowerPoint presentations in the workplace.

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