A Flexible Alternative to PowerPoint
by Richard Olivo, Derek Bok Center, Harvard University
PowerPoint is widely used for presenting pictures and text during
lectures, but it has disadvantages. Some of these are spelled out
vividly in a critique by Edward Tufte (2003). One of the
disadvantages cited by Tufte and others is that PowerPoint tends to
confine the speaker to a single pre-set path, discouraging
spontaneity and diminishing flexibility in response to the
audience's interests. Luckily, a more flexibile alternative is
already available on your computer. You can display your lecture
slides as pages in a Web browser.
Web browsers as presentation tools
Web browsers (like Netscape and Internet Explorer) are already
equipped to do most of what PowerPoint does. They display text in
various sizes and colors, show images (including animations), and
play video and sound with standard plug-ins. Most computers in
lecture rooms have one or more Web browsers preloaded on them, and
it is as easy to display Web files as it is to show PowerPoint
files. Your files can be on a CD-ROM, a portable disk, or even on a
distant server accessed over the internet if the lectern computer
has a fast internet connection.
Browsers can not only emulate much of PowerPoint, they can also
do things that PowerPoint does not. They can have multiple windows
open simultaneously, allowing you to activate slides as you need to
by clicking on them while still keeping other windows in view.
Windows can be different sizes if you wish to have big points and
little examples. A table-of-contents window can be on screen at all
times, allowing you to jump spontaneously to different topics. The
windows can have multiple links to successor pages if you wish to
decide which slide to show at the time you are speaking. Your
examples can be Web pages from other sites, which will launch
quickly because you are already in a browser. You can also
effortlessly put your presentation on your own Web site for the
audience to review later, since it is already in Web format.
What Web browsers do not do easily is pop on bullet points one by
one, or show jazzy transitions when text appears or slides change.
Many critics of PowerPoint's distracting graphics would say that
these deficiencies are really advantages in disguise.
Guidelines for creating presentation pages
As in PowerPoint, you need to design your Web pages so they can
be read easily when projected. This means using a large type size,
keeping your text brief, and using contrasting colors. Most
Web-authoring applications (like Dreamweaver) will allow you to
control these aspects easily. You will have to learn one of these
Web authoring applications if you have not already done so, and this
will be more difficult than authoring in PowerPoint if you are a
complete novice. On the other hand, Web authoring is a very useful
skill to acquire.
Images for your slides need to be embedded in HTML pages. If you
need animation (do you really need animated images?), GIF
images can be animated without a plug-in, while JPEG images cannot
be animated that way. For video clips, the most common formats are
QuickTime and Windows Media Player, either of which can be displayed
on Macs or PCs. Flash is also becoming a standard format for Web
animations, graphics, and video.
Gather the Web pages for your lecture in a folder, which will
serve as a miniature portable Web site. Have a top page that will
serve as your starting point, and name it something that you will
recognize easily when you give your lecture (eg, "StartHere.html").
The top page can be linked to the second page, which in turn will
have links forward and back, or the top page can serve as a table of
contents that links to pages for each of the major subtopics. Any
page can have multiple links, such as to subsidiary examples that
appear in second windows (the HTML code for opening a second window
is a link that ends in "TARGET=window"). Use relative addressing to
create links within the presentation pages, so that they will be
interconnected properly no matter where the files are stored. Use
absolute addressing to access pages that will be brought in over the
internet.
If the lectern computer is not your own laptop, make sure it has
the appropriate plug-in software that your pages require, such as
QuickTime or Flash. If you are not in your own classroom, this may
require advanced notice to your host. Once these technical niceties
are taken care of, you will have a presentation format that is the
equal of PowerPoint in most important respects, and its superior in
flexibility.
Reference:
Tufte, Edward (2003) PowerPoint is evil. Wired Magazine,
Issue 11.09, September 2003.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
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