Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint? (December 28, 2007).

A recent filler item in BMJ, The PowerPoint presentation, written by David Isaacs, Stephen Isaacs, and Dominic Fitzgerald, provided a light hearted view of the bad habits that PowerPoint induces in presenters. I added a comment in the Rapid Responses section of the website titled "Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint?"

I mention how I use a handout rather than PowerPoint for my talks. I don't have to worry about transferrring my file to a strange computer or how it will look at a different screen resolution. I also dispute the myth that it is bad for people to read your handout while you are talking. If you don't want to totally abandon PowerPoint, I suggest that you use a minimal number of slides, use black text on a white background, and use full sentences rather than a bulleted list.

This webpage was written by Steve Simon on 2007-12-28, edited by Steve Simon, and was last modified on 2008-07-08. Send feedback to ssimon at cmh dot edu or click on the email link at the top of the page. Category: Presenting research data