Powerpoint - The Bad and The Ugly (and how to find some good).

Just to be fair, here is a suggestion to help make best use of Powerpoint. Dan Kestin sent me the following suggestions, which he attributes to IBM:

• All headlines should be complete sentences (ending with a . ! or ?)

• Horizontal logic:  All headlines should read together like a story, in order.  If you just read all the headlines on each slide, without reading the bottom stuff, you should be able to learn the main messages of the presentation.

• Vertical logic:  All content on the body of slides should directly support the headline sentence.  Further, each slide should stand on its own - and be understandable, outside the context of the rest of the deck. When taken in context however, it should strengthen the presentation of the story

My anti-Powerpoint rant

Genome Biology article published on PubMed: Powerless to stop myself

Edward Tufte, extracted from his The Cognitive Style of Power, on NASA, Shuttle Columbia, and Powerpoint: PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports

CNN asks: Does PowerPoint make us stupid?

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation