Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint to Present Information

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint to Present Information Created by Carrie Blount

2. Objectives • Evaluate different ways to present information • Identify computer programs used to present information • Identify 6 advantages of PowerPoint • Identify 4 disadvantages of using PowerPoint 

3. Ways to Present Information • Verbally • Lecture • Discussion • Written • Books • Through Media • Film, Audiotape • Computer Software

4. Programs Used to Present Information • Flash • Open Office Impress • Apple Keynote • Photoshop • Microsoft PowerPoint

5. PowerPoint • Microsoft Office PowerPoint was originally developed by Bob Gasking and software developer Dennis Austin under the name Presenter for Forethought. • Forethought released PowerPoint 1.0 for the Apple Macintosh in April 1987. It ran in black and white, generating text-and-graphics pages for overhead transparencies. A new full-color version of PowerPoint shipped a year later after the first color Macintosh came to market. • Microsoft Corporation purchased Forethought and its PowerPoint software product for $14 million on July 31, 1987. In 1990 the first Windows versions were produced for Windows 3.0. Since 1990, PowerPoint has been included in Microsoft Office suite of applications -- except for the Basic Editions of the suite.

6. PowerPoint (cont.) • PowerPoint presentations consist a number of individual pages called "slides". • Slides may contain text, graphics, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely on the slide. PowerPoint, however, facilitates the use of a consistent style in a presentation using a template or "Slide Master". • The presentation can be printed or displayed live on a computer and navigated through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts. • PowerPoint provides custom animation to animate pictures and texts to enter, exit, or move on slides. PowerPoint also allows a variety of movements between slides called transitions. • Presentations can be saved and run in any of the file formats: the default .ppt (presentation), .pps (PowerPoint Show) or .pot (template).

7. Advantages of PowerPoint • It is structured and easy to format. • You can deviate from structure when necessary. • Designed for point by point communication. • With sub points • And sub sub points • It can easily be exported to web for viewing. • It can present complex computer graphics and animations. • You can present information in a professional manner.

8. Disadvantages of PowerPoint • Users must have some experience with technology, the PowerPoint slide show, and projectors. • It tends to confine the speaker to a single pre-set path, discouraging spontaneity and diminishing flexibility in response to the audience's interests. • To demonstrate a point, only one visual at a time can be shown. • Presentations can become centered around the animation or graphics and lose it teaching impact. Presentations should use simple graphics that highlight the information not distract from it.

9. Conclusion • PowerPoint can be an effective way to present information. • It can be visually appealing for the learner but can also become a distraction. • Presenters must be aware of the software’s advantages and disadvantages.