[HN Gopher] Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate...
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Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation
Author : gumby
Score : 57 points
Date : 2023-08-14 18:40 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.technologyreview.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.technologyreview.com)
| crabl wrote:
| A great book on this topic is Sweating Bullets by Robert Gaskins,
| the inventor of PowerPoint. It's amazing how little the core of
| that program has changed since it was first introduced.
| constantly wrote:
| Unfortunately presented as a long form article and not a
| presentation.
| gumby wrote:
| s/Unfortunately/Thankfully/ but a great point!
| [deleted]
| ghaff wrote:
| This really focuses on high end corporate presentations. I
| remember 35mm customer presentation mixed in with printed foils
| as being a lot more pedestrian--and some of the slides were
| invariably out of date because getting them updated could take a
| month or more.
| [deleted]
| bitwize wrote:
| I remember an assembly at school that consisted of a multi-image
| presentation called _Eye to Eye_. In terms of content I think it
| fell into the typical early 90s don 't-do-school, stay-in-drugs
| messaging of the time, but I was fascinated by it because it was
| driven by nine computer-controlled, precisely timed slide
| projectors arranged in a 3x3 square with accompanying audio
| playback; and supplemented by a 16mm film projector that
| occasionally replaced the center slide projector and provided
| "video" in the center of the square surrounded by images from the
| other eight projectors.
|
| By switching slides on a "rolling" schedule, the slide projectors
| could achieve very smooth fades and transitions. Combined with
| the accompanying audio, it made for an effect that was almost
| movie-like, showing characters moving and speaking more smoothly
| than you would expect a slideshow to be capable of.
|
| The humble slide projector is far more capable than one might
| guess, and has played a central role in all manner of visual
| presentation: the infamous "Big Board" from the gameshow _Press
| Your Luck_ , for instance, consisted of slide projectors showing
| the various cash amounts, prizes, Whammies, etc. onto screens
| around the perimeter of the board, while border lights around
| each screen turned on to highlight which one the player would win
| if they hit the stop button. Famously, this arrangement was not
| random and super exploitable.
|
| Now of course, the slide projector has joined the rotary phone
| and the floppy disk on the scrap heap of once-ubiquitous
| technologies that vanished after their moment passed.
| bitwize wrote:
| Thinking on it some there may have been eighteen projectors,
| allowing the first set of nine to crossfade into the second set
| of nine. Analogue double-buffering!
| joezydeco wrote:
| There's a decent sized gap in this history, between
| transparencies or foils on top of an overhead projector and the
| modern era where laptops were connected to long-throw video
| projectors.
|
| This middle period was filled by the creation of LCD panels that
| fit on top of an overhead projector and acted as a rudimentary
| video projector. The earliest ones were black and white and CGA
| only. I recall my dad using the early version of MS Paint to make
| images that he'd throw up on the screen with an Eastman Kodak LCD
| unit. Here's an example made by 3M:
|
| https://scientific-solutions.com/ebay/lcdpanel/lcdpanel.html
|
| Later on, IBM actually had a specific model of ThinkPad, the
| 755CDV, that had a detachable backlight panel on the display. You
| would strap _the entire laptop_ to an overhead projector to do
| your presentation.
|
| https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:755CDV
| catiopatio wrote:
| SGI also made an LCD display with a detachable backlight panel
| for this purpose -- the Indy Presenter:
|
| http://archive.irixnet.org/siliconsurf/products/Indy/present...
|
| "When combined with an Indy workstation--a nifty shoulder bag
| handles both--you have most of the tools you need for a first
| rate show on the road."
|
| I had an Indy workstation, the Presenter display, and the
| shoulder bag -- but I never lugged the thing to a presentation.
| cancerhacker wrote:
| Back in the 80's, about the time PowerPoint was gestating, Dave
| Winer's ThinkTank begat MORE on the Mac. It was a simple text
| outliner - but press a button and the structure turned into a
| presentation. Symantec thought it had huge potential and bought
| the product for several more years of development, but it lost
| steam in the early 90s, despite it's dedicated fans. (Mostly
| people that wanted it for outlining more than presentations.)
| haberdasher wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM8JsM8jNcc
| Sharlin wrote:
| I wonder how many people these days know why PowerPoint slides
| are called slides.
| Symbiote wrote:
| A microscope slide is similar in purpose to a photographic
| slide, and I hope most people use those at some point in their
| school education.
| contingencies wrote:
| Oh I know this one. It's because of the default transition
| animations, right?
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| 30 years of powerpoint and we still think it's a good idea?
| greggsy wrote:
| Yes, we do. It's a succinct prompt that assists with
| communication and engagement. I'm sorry you've had a bad
| experience.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Yes, the problem is mostly lack of skills than the powerpoints
| themselves.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| Slide decks are an assistant tool to a presentation. They are
| meant to support what a presenter is saying, not too do heavy
| lifting.
|
| With very few exceptions, a slide deck should not be wholly
| comprehensible by itself. But too often, people put multiple
| paragraphs on a slide like they attached the script.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| PowerPoint is only a bad idea if you assume that giving
| "regular people" access to powerful tools is a bad idea. I've
| had to modify slides many times to dump aaaall my information
| in there because my boss at the time didn't know the difference
| between a slide deck and a handout. I know I bored everyone to
| death. But is it fair to blame the tool?
|
| Maybe there's a point to be made that PowerPoint should be more
| strict in what it accepts, and that current trends in boring
| you to death are a result of that. But I don't think PowerPoint
| is bad idea _per se_.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| This is my least favorite part: lack of clarity about whether
| people want a document or a presentation.
| toddmorey wrote:
| When I did college in the mid-90s, the American Advertising
| Federation had not yet green-lighted digital projectors. (Which
| was ok, because the resolution and brightness at the time was
| pretty terrible.)
|
| So for the national contests we'd send digital artwork off to be
| printed as actual slides and run two synchronized projectors
| which would crossfade. It was tricky to set up and order the
| slides because they alternated across the two machines, and of
| course edits were impossible. We also had an entirely separate
| film projector for the commercials we'd made.
|
| As analog as the tech was, it was almost indistinguishable from a
| modern presentation in experience. Just a whole lot more gear to
| lug around.
| paulmooreparks wrote:
| I don't know how many times I've been in a meeting or on a
| conference call with an executive, and the exec will say
| something like, "Can someone open PowerPoint and start taking
| notes?" Not OneNote, not Word, not even freakin' Notepad.
| PowerPoint. For meeting notes. It's like that's the only app they
| can use. Is there a lobotomy that's done in business school that
| causes this thinking?
| binarymax wrote:
| Never went to business school and am a hardcore nerd. Still
| like taking notes in ppt because I like how it forces the
| format of cutting things up into sections for you. Also way
| easier to add shapes and diagrams than any other word
| processor. It's like an all-in-one canvas. It's not for
| everyone though and I'm definitely aware of the negative
| connotations.
| fragmede wrote:
| My approach for taking notes digitally has been using a
| Remarkable2, but it's a) yet another pricey electronic gadget
| to have/own, b) niche c) often prohibited in the corporate
| setting due to data privacy reasons, which means it's not a
| general solution, but it's a digital piece of paper, which is
| what I want for taking notes that need diagrams drawn inline.
|
| PowerPoint is a fairly decent mainstream app for taking
| notes. It lets you draw diagrams, which for the right class
| is _indispensable_. Visio is _great_ at diagramming, but less
| good for taking notes. Docs /Word, to draw new diagrams
| around text that often gains new content as the lecture goes
| on, is terrible for this. If the professor shows a picture,
| and then just talks about it, that would be fine, but
| usually, the professor draws a few shapes, then talks some,
| then draws in arrows and more text. Having to got in and out
| of drawing mode, is so much worse.
| postexitus wrote:
| No, because this never happened.
| colejohnson66 wrote:
| The same reason everyone uses Excel as a database: it's all
| they know, and it comes in every tier of the Office suite.
| pxeger1 wrote:
| Not entirely related, but I know a few people whose go-to image
| editor is PowerPoint.
| OldGuyInTheClub wrote:
| Yep. Use a mandated Windows corporate distribution where
| Office is required. "Snip&Sketch" is atrocious. Much faster
| to open Powerpoint and doink with images there.
|
| As a note taking tool it offers alignment and other things
| that OneNote doesn't. In exchange, OneNote offers a lot of
| things I don't give a damn about.
| lesuorac wrote:
| I definitely got a lot better with JS because of locked down
| thin clients.
|
| They always have a browser and being able to make requests by
| default with your credentials is very helpful.
| morgango wrote:
| It actually makes sense if you are thinking that you will be
| presenting your notes back to people at some point. Two birds,
| one stone.
| Nzen wrote:
| Perhaps this person uses it as a constrained writing
| environment, similar to why some people use locked down editors
| [0]. If I am forced to summarize the meeting onto index cards,
| I am obliged to keep the essence and discard the details.
|
| [0] https://hemingwrite.com/
| gumby wrote:
| Interesting thinking, a plausible reason why someone might
| want to do this.
|
| Still seems terrible to me, but not everybody is the same.
| Thanks!
| [deleted]
| fragmede wrote:
| > since the final "product" will be a PPT, having the notes
| already in a PPT file means you get to skip some copy/paste
| steps.
|
| If the slides have been shared beforehand, keeping notes in
| the same file means you don't have a second file to keep
| track of.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| I've worked at a place where the contractor used PowerPoint to
| present 300 page detailed design documents. Made review really
| problematic.
|
| But at another place a dept head started to go blind and could
| no longer easily read slides. So we were all encouraged to make
| verbal presentations of key points. It was actually really
| educational, and a really powerful learning experience.
| thrwayaistartup wrote:
| I think it's an artifact of (1) being an all-day-meeting-
| person, and (2) the majority of work-product being present in
| PPT form.
|
| (1): Taking notes in PowerPoint is sensible if you want an
| entire conference room to be able to read the notes, as they
| are being taken, from their seats, and without any fuss about
| font sizes and so on.
|
| (2): Additionally, since the final "product" will be a PPT,
| having the notes already in a PPT file means you get to skip
| some copy/paste steps.
|
| It's still a bit silly and a bit of a cargo cult in the online-
| first world, but I get how it happens.
|
| _> Not OneNote, not Word, not even freakin ' Notepad._
|
| Hey, I'll take PPT brain damage over the even worse brain
| damage that causes some orgs to do everything in a buggy ass
| Salesforce version of google docs... give me MBA brain-rot
| bullet points over MBA brain-rot fancy versions of five
| paragraph essays any god damn day...
| csydas wrote:
| What exactly is wrong with this? Powerpoint could easily be
| used for fast notes in a form that likely will be used to
| present to others in a similar fashion, has online storage with
| Microsoft 365 subscriptions, pre-made themes and privacy tags
| that you can set, the list goes on. I wouldn't use it
| personally, but compared to my usual textedit/notepad file open
| for fast notes or todo lists, the example powerpoint you told
| on likely is going to persist longer, be easily accessible by
| persons without my specific interaction (assuming it gets
| shared out to "someone"), there are a lot of benefits.
|
| I'm not a fan of powerpoint presentations in any form; I find
| the medium uninteresting and more of a progress meter for the
| current meeting than anything else, but even that hasn't been
| reliable for a long time to know how long a presentation will
| go, but I don't think using powerpoint in one of the many ways
| it can be used is anything bad; I'd rather that such
| hypothetical execs have someone put the notes into powerpoint
| than write it down on a paper notepad. At the end of the day,
| all I really care about is that I can read the notes if
| required and I can quickly access the data without having to
| bug someone after the initial permissions are set.
|
| (all this being said, I cannot express how frustrating
| Microsoft Office and Google Office are to me; barring
| powerpoints where I have no choice but to build it in one of
| these office suites, I usually just write plain text with
| markdown formatting and only use office suites to apply the
| necessary formatting, using the markdown as a reference; I
| would enjoy word/docs a lot more if there was button to
| "convert markdown to word formatting", and vice versa)
| fragmede wrote:
| Google Doc's markdown mode support is limited, especially
| because you can't just paste a giant pile of markdown into
| Google Docs and have it convert properly as if you'd typed
| the exact same thing, but people should be aware it exists.
| After turning it on, I can type, eg "# heading1", and it'll
| convert into its version of an <h1>.
|
| https://support.google.com/docs/answer/12014036
| csydas wrote:
| Oh, thank you for sharing this :) I was not aware. I wish
| it "converted", but it is at least a nice starting point.
| Thews wrote:
| Microsoft Teams doesn't convert markdown pasted in either.
| It used to do code blocks pretty nicely. I don't know if
| they've removed that functionality, but I can't get it to
| trigger anymore.
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