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FILLERS: David Isaacs, Stephen Isaacs, and Dominic Fitzgerald The PowerPoint presentation BMJ 2007; 335: 1292 [Full text]

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All roads lead to Rome

E.S. Prakash   (22 December 2007)

Make a point with the power

Kavita Singhal, Ankush Singhal   (24 December 2007)

Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint?

Stephen D. Simon   (27 December 2007)

All roads lead to Rome 22 December 2007
E.S. Prakash, Senior Lecturer School of Medicine, Asian Institute of Medicine, Science & Technology, 08100 Bedong, Kedah, Malaysia Send response to journal: Re: All roads lead to Rome	A nice contribution. Sometimes, this is the only way we can get an important message across. This also reminds me immediately of a couple of other articles that used a similar strategy: How to get your paper rejected by H Plotkin http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7480/1469, accessed 22 Dec 2007; How to be a bad teacher, an article I wrote for Advances in Physiology Education http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/29/3/182 -a accessed 22 Dec 2007. Competing interests: None declared
Make a point with the power 24 December 2007
Kavita Singhal, Clinical observer Stevenage, SG1 4AB, Ankush Singhal Send response to journal: Re: Make a point with the power	I read with interest the message by Issacs et al (The PowerPoint presentation, BMJ 2007; 335: 1292). I can not agree more. There could be no better way to send the message across. A very similar strategy on a similar topic was used by Smith (1) which was equally interesting. I would also like to share my views to prevent people having PowerPoint phobia (PPP), PowerPoint stress disorder (PPSD) and PowerPointlessness. Microsoft (2) itself advises how to or not to use PowerPoint (PP). PP is to support presenter, not the other way round. One should not put too much stuff on PP. The number of slides, the number of lines in a slide and the number of words in a line - all should be limited, for eg no more than 5 - 6 bullet points in a slide. Try not to use fancy fonts or font size smaller than 26-28pts. Too much of special effects, colorful animations and pictures distract the audience. They are often used by people who are not so good in their content, though these powerful tools can be used wisely. Don't just read it out, rather use it to emphasize or explain what you have to say. Remember, audience has come to listen to you, not to see back of your head. Try to connect with your audience rather than just throwing slides. Try to make your talk interesting by content and your communication, not solely by power of PP. Be clear what you want to include in your presentation and what cannot be accommodated. Leave enough time for discussion during and at the end of presentation. A good PP presenter needs to be a good editor. As someone has said, a presentation should be like a bikini, long enough to cover all the important aspects but short enough to maintain interest. If you wish to distribute handouts, do it in the end but announce it at start. Having some feedback after the presentation from a genuine source is always very helpful (coming from personal experience). PP does not give presentations, it makes slides. What you can do with PP is very different from what you should do. Never mix them. PowerPoint is to make your point powerful, not to point your power. References: (1)Smith R. How not to give a presentation. BMJ 2000; 321:1570-1571 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7276/1570 (2)Wuorio J. http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/business- software/presenting-with-powerpoint-10-dos-and-donts.aspx Competing interests: None declared
Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint? 27 December 2007
Stephen D. Simon, Research Biostatistician Kansas City, MO, USA 64108 Send response to journal: Re: Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint?	* PowerPoint is not a pre-requisite for a scholarly presentation. I give dozens of talks each year, and with a few rare exceptions, I never use PowerPoint. When I talk, I pass out a handout and talk from the handout. I am almost always the only person in any research conference who does this, so I feel like I am swimming against the tide. * I have found, however, that I enjoy my talks more without PowerPoint. I don't worry about whether my file will transfer properly to a strange computer or how it will look at a different resolution than the computer that I used to develop the talk. I look at my audience more and don't nervously glance backwards to see if I am on the right slide. * Whether my talks are more effective or less effective because I don't use PowerPoint is an open question. There is a vocal minority who believe that PowerPoint will inexorably lead to bad presentations because it encourages a simplistic bulletized format that inhibits communication. The rather provocative titles ("PowerPoint makes you dumb" Thompson 2003 and "PowerPoint is evil", Tufte 2003) draw a sharp line in the sand. Others will argue that bad PowerPoint presentations are the fault of the presenter. * I side with the former group. A satirical attempt to present Lincoln's Gettysburg Address using a PowerPoint format (Norvig & Lincoln 1863) shows the problem with PowerPoint. Presenting a talk using bullet points sucks all the life out of the talk. A brilliantly crafted speech is reduced to idiotic lines like "Men are equal" and "Government not perish." * If you dislike most of the PowerPoint presentations that you see, you can change this by changing how <i>you</i> present <i>your</i> material. You can either dip your toe in at the shallow end of the pool or you can jump in the deep end. * If you want to start at the shallow end of the pool, try to reduce your reliance on PowerPoint. Adopt a minimalist approach--no template, just black text on a white background. It looks boring, but it is by far the easiest color combination to read, especially in a room where you have lighting issues. * Also, try to use fewer slides. One slide showing your general outline would be acceptable, or slides only of your pictures and graphs. If you do use text, avoid putting everything in bullets. An occasional bullet list is not bad, but be sure to mix it up with sections presenting full English sentences (include both a subject and a verb). * I encourage any of you who are currently using PowerPoint to jump in the deep end of the pool. Go cold turkey and give your talk without PowerPoint. Just prepare a narrative handout--full sentences organized into paragraphs. Distribute the handout ahead of your talk and encourage people to read the handout by including comments like "as I noted at the top of page 2" or "look at the graph in the middle of page 4." * It is a myth that people reading your handout instead of listening to you is a bad thing. Anyone who reads your handout during your talk is showing an active interest in your topic. They may not remember what you look like, but they will remember your material. * If you achieve nothing else, you will distinguish yourself as being the only person at the conference who doesn't use PowerPoint (unless I am at the conference as well). And standing out from our peers is something that we all strive for. * Norvig P., and Lincoln A. (1863) "The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation" http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/ Accessed on December 26, 2007. * Tufte, E. (2003) "Powerpoint is evil." Wired Magazine (September). Full free text is available at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html. * Thompson C. (2003) "Powerpoint makes you dumb" The New York Times (December 14). Full free text is available at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00EEDF163CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63. Competing interests: None declared