The Eyes Have It

A sauna in a Saab

In Why PowerPoint is like a sauna in a Saab, Derek K. Miller reminds us that it's the presentation, not the software, that's important.

Also explains how he recently gave a talk with slides created using HTML and shown in IE:

"Here's how I've recently avoided Microsoft dependency: I gave a 90-minute presentation last night, but I made up all 21 of my slides in HTML using the BBEdit text editor and a graphics program. Never mind fancy transitions and animation effects -- I made the slides under Mac OS X (testing using Safari) and displayed 'em on a Windows XP laptop (using Internet Explorer) a few hours later."

"I could have fit two or three of the slide sets on a floppy disk, though I used a USB card reader to move them instead. And I posted them on my Web site as a backup, so I could have done the presentation from any Net-connected computer. The slides on this site are exactly what I used for my talk, not some converted version from PowerPoint or anything else. I spoke from notes printed on paper. Oh, and I popped over to use the basic WordPad word processor occasionally mid-talk, to type down notes and suggestions from the audience on the screen as we went along (which I could then save for later follow-up)."

This technique overcomes one of the reasons PowerPoint has all the power and why nobody wants to switch to anything else. COMPATIBILITY -- everyone has it and you know if you send a PPT presentation to someone, odds are, it they are in the corporate world, they will be able to edit and view it.

Using IE as presentation software means even more people will be able to view the presentation (more people have a browser on their machines than PPT) and everyone has a text editor so everyone has the potential for making changes. However, there aren't nearly as many people who could get in and actually code the HTML necessary to create and edit slides.

I wonder if he considered adding CSS to the mix.

What if you abandoned the slide, next slide model that PPT has the world locked into and developed a presentation delivery style that was based on scrolling through content instead.

I also really like the idea of tiny files and the fact you can show the presentation from any computer, anywhere as long as it has an internet connection.

Considering most of the presentations I create tend to be for academic audiences or regulatory agencies (in other words, very plain Jane), HTML would give me most if not all the feature I use in PPT.

If time allows, I think I might try converting a classic PPT presentation to an single HTML file and play with the scrolling possibilities.