Editing Microsoft PowerPoint (section)

==Cultural impact==
[[File:Presentation in Progress.jpg|thumb|A PowerPoint presentation in progress]]

===Business uses===
PowerPoint was originally targeted just for business presentations. Robert Gaskins, who was responsible for its design, has written about his intended customers: "... I did not target other existing large groups of users of presentations, such as school teachers or military officers. ... I also did not plan to target people who were not existing users of presentations ... such as clergy and school children ... . Our focus was purely on business users, in small and large companies, from one person to the largest multinationals."<ref name="Gaskins-Sweating-Bullets-2012-cultural">{{Cite book |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |title=Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint |year=2012 |publisher=Vinland Books |isbn=978-0-9851424-0-7 <!-- hardcover ed -->|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC_5OCQQJ7YC |access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624031005/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/sweating-bullets/gaskins-sweating-bullets-webpdf-isbn-9780985142414.pdf <!-- webpdf ed --> |url-status=live |archive-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=76–77}} Business people had for a long time made presentations for sales calls and for internal company communications, and PowerPoint produced the same formats in the same style and for the same purposes.<ref name="Gaskins-Sweating-Bullets-2012-cultural" />{{Rp|page=420}}

PowerPoint use in business grew over its first five years (1987–1992) to sales of about 1 million copies annually, for worldwide market share of 63 percent.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" /> Over the following five years (1992–1997) PowerPoint sales accelerated, to a rate of about 4 million copies annually, for worldwide market share of 85 percent.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ziff Davis Market Intelligence |date=September 1998 |title=The 800-Pound Gorilla of the Presentation Market |journal=Mobile Computing and Communications |page=95 |volume=9 |issue=9 |issn=1047-1952 |quote=... in 1997, without question the market leader was Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint, which sold more than 4 million copies and controls 85 percent of the market. |url=https://filetea.me/t1sEVBHlotISPCAVUKpeg2F5A |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6bxj2eryp?url=https://filetea.me/t1sEVBHlotISPCAVUKpeg2F5A |archive-date=October 1, 2015 |access-date=September 29, 2017 |df=mdy-all }} {{webarchive|format=addlarchives|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826204750/https://filetea.me/n3wiYbSzCLuStyw3hl7fDW0dA |date=August 26, 2017}}</ref> The increase in business use has been attributed to "[[network effect]]s", whereby additional users of PowerPoint in a company or an industry increased its salience and value to other users.<ref>{{Cite interview |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |subject-link=Robert Gaskins |interviewer=Clay Chandler |title=The Man Who Invented PowerPoint |publisher=[[Hult International Business School]] |journal=Bento |number=7 |url=http://bento.hult.edu/the-man-who-dreamed-of-powerpoint/ <!-- URL is correctly different from title --> |date=October 2016 |access-date=September 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922214245/http://bento.hult.edu/the-man-who-dreamed-of-powerpoint/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 22, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint succeeded so quickly because it spread rapidly by viral transmission from user to user ... every time early adopters used our product effectively, they demonstrated its value to other potential customers. PowerPoint made it especially easy for colleagues within the same company to share materials and incorporate one another's slides into their presentations with automatic formatting. This created networks of cooperation that benefited everyone.}}</ref>

Not everyone immediately approved of the greater use of PowerPoint for presentations, even in business. CEOs who very early were reported to discourage or ban PowerPoint presentations at internal business meetings included [[Louis V. Gerstner Jr.|Lou Gerstner]] (at IBM, in 1993),<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerstner | first=Louis V. Jr. |author-link=Louis V. Gerstner Jr. |date=2002 |title=Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround |publisher=HarperCollins |page=[https://archive.org/details/whosayselephants00gers/page/43 43] |isbn=978-0060523794 |quote=[Gerstner:] By that afternoon an email about my hitting the Off button on the overhead projector was crisscrossing the world. Talk about consternation! It was as if the President of the United States had banned the use of English at White House meetings. |url=https://archive.org/details/whosayselephants00gers/page/43 }}</ref> [[Scott McNealy]] (at Sun Microsystems, in 1996),<ref>{{cite news |editor-last=Rae-Dupree |editor-first=Janet |date=January 27, 1997 |title=Sun Microsystems' Chief: A Mission Against 'Dark Side' (Q & A With Scott McNealy) |newspaper=San Jose Mercury News |issn=0747-2099 |department=Business Monday |edition=Morning Final |page=8E |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/archive-search/ |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170923220156/https://filetea.me/n3wHzDE7FZKSFqqS6e5Vl8ICw |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=[McNealy:] ' ... we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since we banned PowerPoint. Now, I would argue that every company in the world, if they would just ban PowerPoint, would see their earnings skyrocket. Employees would stand around going, "What do I do? Guess I've got to go to work.{{Double single}}  |df=mdy-all }} {{webarchive|format=addlarchives|url=https://archive.today/20170923220156/https://filetea.me/n3wHzDE7FZKSFqqS6e5Vl8ICw |date=September 23, 2017}}</ref> and [[Steve Jobs]] (at Apple, in 1997).<ref>{{cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Isaacson |date=2011 |title=Steve Jobs |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=[https://archive.org/details/stevejobs00isaa/page/337 337] |isbn=978-1-4516-4853-9 |quote=[Jobs:] 'People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.' |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/stevejobs00isaa/page/337 }}</ref> But even so, Rich Gold, a scholar who studied corporate presentation use at [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]], could write in 1999: "Within today's corporation, if you want to communicate an idea ... you use PowerPoint."<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/TC510-Fall2011/GoldReadingPowerpoint.pdf |last=Gold |first=Rich |orig-year=Syposium paper 1999 |chapter=Chapter 14: Reading PowerPoint |pages=256–270 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923165414/https://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/TC510-Fall2011/GoldReadingPowerpoint.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |editor-last=Allen |editor-first=Nancy |title=Working with Words and Images: New Steps in an Old Dance |location=Westport, Conn. |publisher=Ablex Publishing |isbn=978-1-56750-608-2 |date=2002 |series=New Directions in Computers and Composition Studies}}</ref>

===Uses beyond business===
At the same time that PowerPoint was becoming dominant in business settings, it was also being adopted for uses beyond business: "Personal computing ... scaled up the production of presentations. ... The result has been the rise of presentation culture. In an information society, nearly everyone presents."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Robles-Anderson |first1=Erica |last2=Svensson |first2=Patrik |date=January 15, 2016 |title='One Damn Slide After Another': PowerPoint at Every Occasion for Speech |url=http://computationalculture.net/article/one-damn-slide-after-another-powerpoint-at-every-occasion-for-speech |journal=Computational Culture |issn=2047-2390 |volume=1 |issue=5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906030606/http://computationalculture.net/article/one-damn-slide-after-another-powerpoint-at-every-occasion-for-speech |url-status=live |archive-date=September 6, 2017 |access-date=September 6, 2017}}</ref>

In 1998, at about the same time that Gold was pronouncing PowerPoint's ubiquity in business, the influential [[Bell Labs]] engineer [[Robert W. Lucky]] could already write about broader uses:<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lucky |first=Robert W. |author-link=Robert W. Lucky |date=January 1998 |title=The World According to PowerPoint |department=Reflections |journal=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |publication-date=January 1998 |volume=35 |issue=1 |page=17 |issn=0018-9235 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.1998.646010 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|... the world has run amok with the giddy power of presentation graphics. A new language is in the air, and it is codified in PowerPoint. ... In a family discussion about what to do on a given evening, for example, I feel like pulling out my laptop and giving a [[Viewgraph|Vugraph]] presentation... In church, I am surprised that the preachers haven't caught on yet. ... How have we gotten on so long without PowerPoint?}}

Over a decade or so, beginning in the mid-1990s, PowerPoint began to be used in many communication situations, well beyond its original business presentation uses, to include teaching in schools<ref>{{Cite news |last=Guernsey |first=Lisa |date=May 31, 2001 |title=PowerPoint Invades the Classroom |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/31/technology/31POWE.html |department=Technology |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606211756/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/31/technology/powerpoint-invades-the-classroom.html |url-status=live |archive-date=June 6, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint—the must-have presentation software of the corporate world—has infiltrated the schoolhouse. In the coming weeks, students from 12th grade to, yes, kindergarten will finish science projects and polish end-of-the-year presentations on computerized slide shows ... . Software designed for business people has found an audience among the spiral notebook set.}}</ref> and in universities,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Levasseur |first1=David G. |last2=Sawyer |first2=J. Kanan |date=August 19, 2006 |title=Pedagogy Meets PowerPoint: A Research Review of the Effects of Computer-Generated Slides in the Classroom |journal=Review of Communication |issn=1535-8593 |volume=6 |issue=1–2 |pages=101–123 |doi=10.1080/15358590600763383 |s2cid=144022054 |quote=Higher education has certainly not been immune from the growing influence of presentation software. ...  Five years ago, none of our department's classrooms were equipped to show multimedia slides. At present, all of our classrooms have been upgraded with such technology, and faculty are actively encouraged to incorporate slides into their lectures. Our institution is certainly not alone in this trend. A large number of educators in the United States use PowerPoint in their classrooms ...  [with 84 references to earlier studies].}}</ref> lecturing in scientific meetings<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pinker |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Pinker |date=June 10, 2010 |title=Mind Over Mass Media |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html |department=Opinion Pages |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |page=A31 |edition=New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910050739/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html |url-status=live |archive-date=September 10, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=These days scientists ... cannot lecture without PowerPoint.}}</ref> (and preparing their related poster sessions<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.umt.edu/ugresearch/documents/make_posters.pdf |title=Making a Large Format Scientific Poster Using PowerPoint |last=<!-- no author attribution --> |date=February 1, 2001 |website=University of Montana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231122843/http://www.umt.edu/ugresearch/documents/make_posters.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=December 31, 2013 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint ... can do all the basics [using PowerPoint 2000].}}</ref>), worshipping in churches,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Jeremy |date=August 12, 2005 |title=Presentation software—worship at the click of a mouse |url=http://www.brnow.org/Resources/Archives-2000-2007/August-2005/Presentation-software-worship-at-the-click-of-a-mo |website=BRNow.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923182647/https://brnow.org/Resources/Archives-2000-2007/August-2005/Presentation-software-worship-at-the-click-of-a-mo |url-status=live |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=According to LifeWay, 'Statistics show that around 90 percent of churches that show multimedia during worship use Microsoft PowerPoint.' }}</ref> making legal arguments in courtrooms,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Armstrong |first=Ken |date=December 23, 2014 |title=The Sneakiest Way Prosecutors Get a Guilty Verdict: PowerPoint |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/12/prosecutors-powerpoint-presentations/ |magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223195616/http://www.wired.com/2014/12/prosecutors-powerpoint-presentations |url-status=live |archive-date=December 23, 2014 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=The use of sophisticated visuals in the courtroom has boomed in recent years, thanks to research on the power of show-and-tell. ... In one civil case in Los Angeles County, a plaintiff spent $60,000 on a PowerPoint slide show. |df=mdy-all }}</ref> displaying supertitles in theaters,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gordonsupertitles.com/tech.html |title=David Gordon Choral Supertitles |last=Gordon |first=David |author-link=David Gordon (tenor) |date=2015 |website=David Gordon Supertitles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023022014/http://gordonsupertitles.com/tech.html |url-status=live |archive-date=October 23, 2016 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote= ... supertitles are simple PowerPoint presentations, completely compatible with PCs or Macs.}}</ref> driving helmet-mounted displays in spacesuits for NASA astronauts,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.astrobio.net/moon-to-mars/making-a-list-checking-it-twice/ |title=Making a List, Checking It Twice |last=Bortman |first=Henry |date=October 13, 2005 |website=Astrobiology Magazine | publisher=[[NASA]] |issn=2152-1239 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923193329/https://www.astrobio.net/moon-to-mars/making-a-list-checking-it-twice/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote= ... They're mounted in the helmet so that when you turn and look, there's this little screen that shows the checklist. Now in this case, I've written the checklists and put them in PowerPoint, so we just launch a PowerPoint slide show.  ... It's a real treat to use.}}</ref> giving military briefings,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jaffe |first=Greg |date=April 26, 2000 |title=What's Your Point, Lieutenant? Please, Just Cut to the Pie Charts |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB956703757412556977 |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |department=A-Hed |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |edition=US |page=A1 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ta1rPrxK?url=https://filetea.me/n3wWd80E7jUQBunx1dNjWUTBg |url-status=live |archive-date=September 18, 2017 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |quote=Old-fashioned slide briefings, designed to update generals on troop movements, have been a staple of the military since World War II. But in only a few short years PowerPoint has altered the landscape. |df=mdy-all }}</ref> issuing governmental reports,<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Pece |first=Gregory S. |title=The PowerPoint Society: The Influence of PowerPoint in the U.S. Government and Bureaucracy |type=M.A. Thesis |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33029 |date=May 10, 2005 |publisher=Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |hdl=10919/33029 |place=Blacksburg, Virginia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025221506/http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05202005-065041/unrestricted/PecePPthesis.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=October 25, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=The standard method for presenting information in the military and political establishments of the US government is through the projection of data in bullet style and/or graphical formats onto an illuminated screen, using some sort of first analogue, or now, digital media. Since the late 1990s, the most common and expected form of presentation is via the most commonly pre-installed software of presentation genre: Microsoft PowerPoint. This style of presentation has become the norm of communication ... .}}</ref> undertaking diplomatic negotiations,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB234/Powell_slides.pdf |title=Iraq: Failing to Disarm (U.S. Secretary of State Powell's Presentation to the UN Security Council) |last=Powell |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Powell |date=February 5, 2003 |website=The National Security Archive (George Washington University) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505133227/http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB234/Powell_slides.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=May 5, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Peterson |first=Scott |date=July 9, 2012 |title=Iran makes its nuclear case—with PowerPoint |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0709/Iran-makes-its-nuclear-case-with-PowerPoint |newspaper=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923225938/https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0709/Iran-makes-its-nuclear-case-with-PowerPoint |url-status=live |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=The complete set of PowerPoint slides that Iran used during a meeting with world powers are now public.}}</ref> writing novels,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Egan |first=Jennifer |author-link=Jennifer Egan |title=A Visit from the Goon Squad |year=2010 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-59283-5 |pages=176–251|title-link=A Visit from the Goon Squad }}</ref> giving architectural demonstrations,<ref>{{Cite report |last1=Stark |first1=David |last2=Paravel |first2=Verena |date=February 2007 |title=PowerPoint Demonstrations: Digital Technologies of Persuasion (Working Paper 07-04) |publisher=Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237291359 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6bt9xmP7K?url=https://filetea.me/t1shl0UDrmOR925XRRrRzWB6w |url-status=live |archive-date=September 28, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017 }}</ref> prototyping website designs,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://boxesandarrows.com/interactive-prototypes-with-powerpoint/ |title=Interactive Prototypes with PowerPoint |last=Kelly |first=Maureen |date=August 7, 2007 |website=Boxes and Arrows |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905092717/http://boxesandarrows.com/interactive-prototypes-with-powerpoint/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 5, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote= ... many designers ... use PowerPoint for blocking out screens without ever discovering the interactive features for creating hyperlinks, buttons, and dynamic mouseover effects. Yes, PowerPoint can do all that.}}</ref> creating animated video games,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Greenberg |first=Andy |author-link=Andy Greenberg |date=May 11, 2010 |title=The Underground Art Of PowerPoint |url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/microsoft-software-iphone-technology-powerpoint.html |newspaper=Forbes |issn=0015-6914 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630132845/https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/microsoft-software-iphone-technology-powerpoint.html |url-status=live |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |quote= ... a subculture of PowerPoint enthusiasts is teaching the old application new tricks, and may even be turning a dry presentation format into a full-fledged artistic medium.}}</ref> editing images,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/5-ways-to-use-powerpoint-as-an-image-editor/ | title=5 Ways to Use PowerPoint as an Image Editor | date=February 27, 2018 }}</ref> creating art projects,<ref name="Vienne">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/books/art-architecture-david-byrne-s-alternate-powerpoint-universe.html |last=Vienne |first=Veronique |date=August 17, 2003 |title=David Byrne's Alternate PowerPoint Universe |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |department=Art/Architecture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114105710/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/books/art-architecture-david-byrne-s-alternate-powerpoint-universe.html |url-status=live |archive-date=November 14, 2012 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |quote=With his newest project, David Byrne has tried not only to see it [PowerPoint] anew, but also to use it in the least likely of all applications: a medium for creative expression.}}</ref> and even as a substitute for writing engineering technical reports,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Columbia Accident Investigation Board |author-link1=Columbia Accident Investigation Board |last2=National Aeronautics and Space Administration | author-link2=NASA |year=2003 |title=Report Volume I |url=https://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/CAIB_Vol1.html |chapter=7. The Accident's Organizational Causes |chapter-url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/akamai.netstorage/anon.nasa-global/CAIB/CAIB_lowres_chapter7.pdf |page=191 |isbn=978-0-16-067904-9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202012844/http://s3.amazonaws.com/akamai.netstorage/anon.nasa-global/CAIB/CAIB_lowres_chapter7.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=December 2, 2016 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=At many points during its investigation, the Board was surprised to receive similar presentation slides from NASA officials in place of technical reports. The Board views the endemic use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical communication at NASA.}}</ref> and as an organizing tool for writing general business documents.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://hbr.org/2015/07/why-i-write-in-powerpoint |title=Why I Write in PowerPoint |last=Duarte |first=Nancy |author-link=Nancy Duarte |date=July 27, 2015 |journal=Harvard Business Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305000950/https://hbr.org/2015/07/why-i-write-in-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |access-date=September 21, 2017 |quote=Because PowerPoint is so modular, it allows me to block out major themes (potential sections or chapters) and quickly see if I can generate ample ideas to support them. ... Working in slides, as opposed to one long document, helps me focus on organizing before I really begin writing. I think of the slides as index cards or sticky notes that can be arranged and rearranged until I'm sure my thoughts are in the right order. As I write, I can easily toggle back and forth from 'Slide View' to 'Slide Sorter' to get a sense of the whole and the parts.}}</ref>

By 2003, it seemed that PowerPoint was being used everywhere. Julia Keller reported for the ''Chicago Tribune'':<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keller |first=Julia |date=January 22, 2003 |title=Is PowerPoint the Devil? |url=http://www.rasmusen.org/g751/06d-readings/Keller_%20Is%20PowerPoint%20the%20devil_.pdf |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |issn=1085-6706 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904163317/http://www.rasmusen.org/g751/06d-readings/Keller_%20Is%20PowerPoint%20the%20devil_.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=September 4, 2017 |access-date=September 6, 2017}}</ref>

{{Blockquote |PowerPoint ... is one of the most pervasive and ubiquitous technological tools ever concocted. In less than a decade, it has revolutionized the worlds of business, education, science, and communications, swiftly becoming the standard for just about anybody who wants to explain just about anything to just about anybody else. From corporate middle managers reporting on production goals to 4th-graders fashioning a show-and-tell on the French and Indian War to church pastors explicating the seven deadly sins ... PowerPoint seems poised for world domination.}}

===Cultural reactions===
As uses broadened, cultural awareness of PowerPoint grew and commentary about it began to appear. "With the widespread adoption of PowerPoint came complaints ... often very general statements reflecting dissatisfaction with modern media and communication practices as well as the dysfunctions of organizational culture."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Farkas |first=David K. |date=2006 |title=Toward a better understanding of PowerPoint deck design |url=https://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/FarkasTowardUnderstandingPPT.pdf |journal= Information Design Journal|issn=0142-5471 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=162–171 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130830020920/http://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/FarkasTowardUnderstandingPPT.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=August 30, 2013 |access-date=September 23, 2017|doi=10.1075/idj.14.2.08far }}</ref> Indications of this awareness included increasing mentions of PowerPoint use in the ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic strips of [[Scott Adams]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-comments-on-dilbert-history-of-powerpoint.pdf |title=Comments on Dilbert's History of PowerPoint |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=April 20, 2012 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |type=Draft |pages=59 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517154506/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-comments-on-dilbert-history-of-powerpoint.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=May 17, 2014 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=It took ten to fifteen years for PowerPoint to become an everyday topic of popular discourse.}}</ref> comic parodies of poor or inappropriate use such as the [[Gettysburg Address]] in PowerPoint<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/ |title=The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation |last=Norvig |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Norvig |date=January 2000 |website=Peter Norvig personal website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001109193600/http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/ |url-status=live |archive-date=November 9, 2000 |access-date=September 22, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html |title=The Making of the Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation |last=Norvig |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Norvig |date=2008 |website=Peter Norvig personal website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230051340/http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html |url-status=live |archive-date=December 30, 2008 |access-date=September 22, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> or summaries of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' and Nabokov's ''Lolita'' in PowerPoint,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.radosh.net/writing/ppaol.html |title=The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature |last=Radosh |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Radosh |date=2003 |website=Daniel Radosh personal website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060710004518/http://www.radosh.net/writing/ppaol.html |url-status=live |archive-date=July 10, 2006 |access-date=September 22, 2017}}</ref> and a vast number of publications on the general subject of PowerPoint, especially about how to use it.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Apowerpoint&fq=yr%3A1987..2017+%3E&dblist=638 |title=Search Results for 'kw:powerpoint' > '1987..2017' [WorldCat.org] |date=September 29, 2017 |website=OCLC WorldCat Global Catalog |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170929193106/https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw:powerpoint&fq=yr:1987..2017+%3E&dblist=638 |url-status=live |archive-date=September 29, 2017 |access-date=September 29, 2017 |quote=All Formats (66,169) ... Print book (23,696), eBook (3,475), Thesis/dissertation (1,078) ... Article (18,085) ... Video (3,537) ... |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kaplan|first=Sarah|date=2011|title=Strategy and PowerPoint: An Inquiry into the Epistemic Culture and Machinery of Strategy Making|journal=Organization Science|language=en|volume=22|issue=2|pages=320–346|doi=10.1287/orsc.1100.0531|s2cid=37755593 |issn=1047-7039}}</ref>

Out of all the analyses of PowerPoint over a quarter of a century, at least three general themes emerged as categories of reaction to its broader use: (1) "Use it less": avoid PowerPoint in favor of alternatives, such as using more-complex graphics and written prose, or using nothing;<ref name="Tufte-2003-2006" /> (2) "Use it differently": make a major change to a PowerPoint style that is simpler and pictorial, turning the presentation toward a performance, more like a Steve Jobs keynote;<ref name="Mayer-Atkinson-2004" /> and (3) "Use it better": retain much of the conventional PowerPoint style but learn to avoid making many kinds of mistakes that can interfere with communication.<ref name="Kosslyn-2007" />

====Use it less====
{{See also |Edward Tufte|Anti-PowerPoint Party}}
An early reaction was that the broader use of PowerPoint was a mistake, and should be reversed. An influential example of this came from [[Edward Tufte]], an authority on information design, who has been a professor of political science, statistics, and computer science at Princeton and Yale, but is best known for his self-published books on data visualization, which have sold nearly 2&nbsp;million copies as of 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.edwardtufte.com/files/ETresume.pdf |title=Edward R. Tufte, Resume |last1=Tufte |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward Tufte |date=December 2014 |website=Edward Tufte personal website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009173114/http://www.edwardtufte.com/files/ETresume.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=October 9, 2016 |access-date=September 20, 2017 |quote=1.9&nbsp;million copies of 4 books and 422,000 copies of 4 booklets printed from 1983–2014, and continuing.}}</ref>

In 2003, he published a widely-read booklet titled ''The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint,'' revised in 2006.<ref name="Tufte-2003-2006" /> Tufte found a number of problems with the "cognitive style" of PowerPoint, many of which he attributed to the standard default style templates:<ref name="Tufte-2003-2006" />

{{Blockquote|PowerPoint's convenience for some presenters is costly to the content and the audience. These costs arise from the ''cognitive style characteristics of the standard default PP presentation:'' foreshortening of evidence and thought, low spatial resolution, an intensely hierarchical single-path structure as the model for organizing every type of content, breaking up narratives and data into slides and minimal fragments, rapid temporal sequencing of thin information rather than focused spatial analysis, conspicuous chartjunk and PP Phluff, branding of slides with logotypes, a preoccupation with format not content, incompetent designs for data graphics and tables, and a smirky commercialism that turns information into a sales pitch and presenters into marketeers ''[italics in original]''.}}

Tufte particularly advised against using PowerPoint for reporting scientific analyses, using as a dramatic example some slides made during the flight of the space shuttle ''Columbia'' after it had been damaged by an accident at liftoff, slides which poorly communicated the engineers' limited understanding of what had happened.<ref name="Tufte-2003-2006" />{{Rp|pages=8–14}} For such technical presentations, and for most occasions apart from its initial domain of sales presentations, Tufte advised against using PowerPoint at all; in many situations, according to Tufte, it would be better to substitute high-resolution graphics or concise prose documents as handouts for the audience to study and discuss, providing a great deal more detail.<ref name="Tufte-2003-2006" />

Many commentators enthusiastically joined in Tufte's vivid criticism of PowerPoint uses,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Parks |first=Bob |date=August 30, 2012 |title=Death to PowerPoint! |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-30/death-to-powerpoint |url-access=subscription |newspaper=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |issn=0007-7135 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150312035814/http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-08-30/death-to-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=March 12, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017}}</ref> and at a conference held in 2013 (a decade after Tufte's booklet appeared) one paper claimed that "Despite all the criticism about his work, Tufte can be considered as the single most influential author in the discourse on PowerPoint. ... While his approach was not rigorous from a research perspective, his articles received wide resonance with the public at large ... ."<ref>{{Cite conference |title=10 Years after Tufte's "Cognitive Style of PowerPoint": Synthesizing its Constraining Qualities |url=https://filetea.me/t1szChzbSBbQkuvlhlAXqxljg |last1=Kernbach |first1=Sebastian |last2=Bresciani |first2=Sabrina |chapter=10 Years after Tufte's "Cognitive Style of Power ''Point''": Synthesizing its Constraining Qualities |date=July 16–18, 2013 |conference=Information Visualisation (IV), 2013 17th International Conference |location=London |pages=345–350 |doi=10.1109/IV.2013.44 |isbn=978-1-4799-0834-9 |publisher=IEEE |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6Y8PV6QHI?url=https://filetea.me/t1szChzbSBbQkuvlhlAXqxljg |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 28, 2015 |df=mdy-all |url-access=subscription }}</ref> There were also others who disagreed with Tufte's assertion that the PowerPoint program reduces the quality of presenters' thoughts: [[Steven Pinker]], professor of psychology at MIT and later Harvard, had earlier argued that "If anything, PowerPoint, if used well, would ideally reflect the way we think."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Zuckerman |first=Laurence |date=April 17, 1999 |title=Words Go Right to the Brain, But Can They Stir the Heart?; Some Say Popular Software Debases Public Speaking |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/17/arts/words-go-right-brain-but-can-they-stir-heart-some-say-popular-software-debases.html |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=September 23, 2017}}</ref> Pinker later reinforced this opinion: "Any general opposition to PowerPoint is just dumb, ... It's like denouncing lectures—before there were awful PowerPoint presentations, there were awful scripted lectures, unscripted lectures, slide shows, chalk talks, and so on."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Feith |first=David |date=July 31, 2009 |title=Speaking Truth to PowerPoint |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204619004574318473921093400 |url-access=subscription |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ZSdhYhA9?url=https://filetea.me/t1sq7c2KUvATqeAdKcx5xc1gQ |url-status=live |archive-date=June 21, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017}}</ref>

Much of the early commentary, on all sides, was "informal" and "anecdotal", because empirical research had been limited.<ref>{{Cite conference |title=10 Years after Tufte's "Cognitive Style of PowerPoint": Synthesizing its Constraining Qualities |url=https://filetea.me/t1szChzbSBbQkuvlhlAXqxljg |last1=Kernbach |first1=Sebastian |last2=Bresciani |first2=Sabrina |chapter=10 Years after Tufte's "Cognitive Style of Power ''Point''": Synthesizing its Constraining Qualities |date=July 16–18, 2013 |conference=Information Visualisation (IV), 2013 17th International Conference |location=London |pages=345–350 |doi=10.1109/IV.2013.44 |isbn=978-1-4799-0834-9 |publisher=IEEE |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6Y8PV6QHI?url=https://filetea.me/t1szChzbSBbQkuvlhlAXqxljg |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 28, 2015 |quote=Because every day a huge number of people meet to exchange ideas and make decisions with PowerPoint slides being displayed on the wall, investigating the tool is enormously important ... . Despite the pervasiveness of PowerPoint in our culture there have been few empirical studies and most of the non-empirical work is based on casual essays and informal anecdotal reviews which very often take a polemic and overall negative position on PowerPoint, rather than conducting formal scholarship. This lack of rigorous studies and empirical research is surprising given the enormous complexity and importance of the PowerPoint tool. |df=mdy-all |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

====Use it differently====
{{See also|Richard E. Mayer |Stevenote |label 2=Steve Jobs Keynotes}}
A second reaction to PowerPoint use was to say that PowerPoint can be used well, but only by substantially changing its style of use. This reaction is exemplified by [[Richard E. Mayer]], a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has studied cognition and learning, particularly the design of educational multimedia, and who has published more than 500 publications, including over 30 books.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/mayer |title=Richard Mayer |date=2017 |website=Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California at Santa Barbara, faculty directory |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617030504/https://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/mayer |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 17, 2017 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=Dr. Mayer is concerned with how to present information in ways that help people understand, including how to use words and pictures to explain scientific and mathematical concepts.}}</ref> Mayer's theme has been that "In light of the science, it is up to us to make a fundamental shift in our thinking—we can no longer expect people to struggle to try to adapt to our PowerPoint habits. Instead, we have to change our PowerPoint habits to align with the way people learn."<ref name="Mayer-Atkinson-2004" />

Tufte had argued his judgment that the information density of text on PowerPoint slides was too low, perhaps only 40 words on a slide, leading to over-simplified messages;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tufte |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Tufte |year=2006 |orig-year=1st ed. 2003, 24 pg. |title=The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within |edition=2nd |location=Cheshire, Connecticut |publisher=Graphics Press LLC |isbn=978-0-9613921-6-1 |pages=4, 15 |quote=very little information per slide ... the text is grossly impoverished .. the PowerPoint slide typically shows 40 words ... .}}</ref> Mayer responded that his empirical research showed exactly the opposite, that the amount of text on PowerPoint slides was usually too high, and that even fewer than 40 words on a slide resulted in "PowerPoint overload" that impeded understanding during presentations.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228893840 |title=Five ways to reduce PowerPoint overload |last1=Atkinson |first1=Cliff |last2=Mayer |first2=Richard E. |author-link2=Richard E. Mayer |date=April 23, 2004 |version=Revision 1.1 |website=ResearchGate |format=PDF |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ZMK2qMHz?url=https://filetea.me/t1sWlhUAjlwTqxmEj6Ds9ZT4Q |url-status=live |archive-date=June 17, 2015 |access-date=September 23, 2017 |quote=... it is conventional wisdom to put no more than six lines of text on a PowerPoint slide, six words per line. But that convention is no longer wise in the light of research that shows that even that amount of text on a slide can be a recipe for information overload.}}</ref>

Mayer suggested a few major changes from traditional PowerPoint formats:<ref name="Mayer-Atkinson-2004" />

* replacing brief slide titles with longer "headlines" expressing complete ideas;
* showing more slides but simpler ones;
* removing almost all text including nearly all bullet lists (reserving the text for the spoken narration);
* using larger, higher-quality, and more important graphics and photographs;
* removing all extraneous decoration, backgrounds, logos and identifications, everything but the essential message.

Mayer's ideas are claimed by [[Carmine Gallo]] to have been reflected in Steve Jobs's presentations: "Mayer outlined fundamental principles of multimedia design based on what scientists know about cognitive functioning. Steve Jobs's slides adhere to each of Mayer's principles ... ."<ref name="Gallo-2009">{{Cite book |last=Gallo |first=Carmine |author-link=Carmine Gallo |year=2009 |title=The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-163608-7}}</ref>{{Rp|page=92}} Though not unique to Jobs, many people saw the style for the first time in Jobs's famous product introductions.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gallo |first=Carmine |author-link=Carmine Gallo |date=September 7, 2012 |title=Jeff Bezos and The End of PowerPoint As We Know It |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/ |newspaper=Forbes |issn=0015-6914 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325150413/http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 25, 2015 |access-date=September 24, 2017 |quote=And no, Steve Jobs did not invent the style. He just happened to use it very effectively.}}</ref> Steve Jobs would have been using Apple's [[Keynote (presentation software)|Keynote]], which was designed for Jobs's own slide shows beginning in 2003, but Gallo says that "speaking like Jobs has little to do with the type of presentation software you use (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.) ... all the techniques apply equally to PowerPoint and Keynote."<ref name="Gallo-2009" />{{Rp|pages=14,46}} Gallo adds that "Microsoft's PowerPoint has one big advantage over Apple's Keynote presentation software—it's everywhere ... it's safe to say that the number of Keynote presentations is minuscule in comparison with PowerPoint. Although most presentation designers who are familiar with both formats prefer to work in the more elegant Keynote system, those same designers will tell you that the majority of their client work is done in PowerPoint."<ref name="Gallo-2009" />{{Rp|page=44}}

Consistent with its association with Steve Jobs's keynotes, a response to this style has been that it is particularly effective for "ballroom-style presentations" (as often given in conference center ballrooms) where a celebrated and practiced speaker addresses a large passive audience, but less appropriate for "conference room-style presentations" which are often recurring internal business meetings for in-depth discussion with motivated counterparts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gabrielle |first=Bruce R. |year=2010 |title=Speaking PowerPoint: The New Language of Business |publisher=Insights Publishing |isbn=978-0-9842360-4-6 |pages=16–17}}</ref>

====Use it better====
{{See also |Stephen Kosslyn}}
A third reaction to PowerPoint use was to conclude that the standard style is capable of being used well, but that many small points need to be executed carefully, to avoid impeding understanding. This kind of analysis is particularly associated with [[Stephen Kosslyn]], a cognitive neuroscientist who specializes in the psychology of learning and visual communication, and who has been head of the department of psychology at Harvard, has been Director of Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and has published some 300 papers and 14 books.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/people/stephen-kosslyn/ |title=Stephen M. Kosslyn, Ph.D., Dean of Arts and Sciences |date=2017 |website=Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute (Claremont Colleges) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301232956/https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/people/stephen-kosslyn/ |url-status=live |archive-date=March 1, 2016 |access-date=September 24, 2017}}</ref>

Kosslyn presented a set of psychological principles of "human perception, memory, and comprehension" that "appears to capture the major points of agreement among researchers."<ref name="Kosslyn-et-al=2012">{{Cite journal |last1=Kosslyn |first1=Stephen M. |author-link1=Stephen Kosslyn |last2=Kievit |first2=Rogier A. |last3=Russell |first3=Alexandra G. |last4=Shephard |first4=Jennifer M. |date=July 17, 2012 |title=PowerPoint Presentation Flaws and Failures: A Psychological Analysis |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |issn=1664-1078 |volume=3 |issue=230 |pages=230 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00230 |pmid=22822402 |pmc=3398435 |df=mdy-all |doi-access=free }}</ref> He reports that his experiments support the idea that it is not intuitive or obvious how to create effective PowerPoint presentations that conform to those agreed principles, and that even small differences that might not seem significant to a presenter can produce very different results in audiences' understanding. For this reason, Kosslyn says, users need specific education to be able to identify best ways to avoid "flaws and failures":<ref name="Kosslyn-et-al=2012" />

{{Blockquote|Specifically, we hypothesized and found that the psychological principles are often violated in PowerPoint slideshows across different fields ..., that some types of presentation flaws are noticeable and annoying to audience members ..., and that observers have difficulty identifying many violations in graphical displays in individual slides ... . These studies converge in painting the following picture: PowerPoint presentations are commonly flawed; some types of flaws are more common than others; flaws are not isolated to one domain or context; and, although some types of flaws annoy the audience, flaws at the level of slide design are not always obvious to an untrained observer ... .}}

The many "flaws and failures" identified were those "likely to disrupt the comprehension or memory of the material." Among the most common examples were "Bulleted items are not presented individually, growing the list from the top to the bottom," "More than four bulleted items appear in a single list," "More than two lines are used per bulleted sentence," and "Words are not large enough (i.e., greater than 20 point) to be easily seen." Among audience reactions common problems reported were "Speakers read word-for-word from notes or from the slides themselves," "The slides contained too much material to absorb before the next slide was presented," and "The main point was obscured by lots of irrelevant detail."<ref name="Kosslyn-et-al=2012" />

Kosslyn observes that these findings could help to explain why the many studies of the instructional effectiveness of PowerPoint have been inconclusive and conflicting, if there were differences in the quality of the presentations tested in different studies that went unobserved because "many may feel that 'good design' is intuitively clear."<ref name="Kosslyn-et-al=2012" />

In 2007 Kosslyn wrote a book about PowerPoint, in which he suggested a very large number of fairly modest changes to PowerPoint styles and gave advice on recommended ways of using PowerPoint.<ref name="Kosslyn-2007" /> In a later second book about PowerPoint he suggested nearly 150 clarifying style changes (in fewer than 150 pages).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kosslyn |first=Stephen M. |author-link=Stephen Kosslyn |year=2010 |title=Better PowerPoint: Quick Fixes Based on How Your Audience Thinks |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-537675-3}}</ref> Kosslyn summarizes:<ref name="Kosslyn-2007" />{{Rp|pages=2–3,200}}

{{Blockquote| ... there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the PowerPoint program as a medium; rather, I claim that the problem lies in how it is used. ... In fact, this medium is a remarkably versatile tool that can be extraordinarily effective. ... For many purposes, PowerPoint presentations are a superior medium of communication, which is why they have become standard in so many fields.}}

In 2017, an online poll of social media users in the UK was reported to show that PowerPoint "remains as popular with young tech-savvy users as it is with the Baby Boomers," with about four out of five saying that "PowerPoint was a great tool for making presentations," in part because "PowerPoint, with its capacity to be highly visual, bridges the wordy world of yesterday with the visual future of tomorrow."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Burn-Callander |first=Rebecca |date=April 24, 2017 |title=Your attention, please, for the software we love to hate: PowerPoint celebrates its 30th birthday |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/04/23/powerpoint-celebrates-30th-birthday/ |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |issn=0307-1235 |department=Business |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6rrW6PL5n?url=https://filetea.me/n3wt2GSIIdrSaG4OKObsDPCbw |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |url-status=live |archive-date=July 10, 2017 |access-date=July 10, 2017 |quote=... with new research showing that it remains as popular with young tech-savvy users as it is with the Baby Boomers. An online poll by YouGov showed that 81 per cent of UK Snapchat users agreed that PowerPoint was a great tool for making presentations. ... long -form prose has become increasingly unpopular with modern users. PowerPoint, with its capacity to be highly visual, bridges the wordy world of yesterday with the visual future of tomorrow. |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Also in 2017, the Managerial Communication Group of [[MIT Sloan School of Management]] polled their incoming MBA students, finding that "results underscore just how differently this generation communicates as compared with older workers."<ref name="mit-sloan-2017">{{Cite web |url=http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/articles/3-surprising-ways-that-millennials-communicate/ |title=How millennials approach writing, giving presentations, and data visualization diverges from previous generations |last=Baskin |first=Kara |date=October 4, 2017 |website=MIT Sloan School of Management |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004150949/http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/articles/3-surprising-ways-that-millennials-communicate/ |archive-date=October 4, 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=October 7, 2017 |quote=""Communication is part of everyone's job, but millennials do it differently," said MIT Sloan lecturer Miro Kazakoff, who co-authored the study with MIT Sloan senior lecturer Kara Blackburn."}}</ref> Fewer than half of respondents reported doing any meaningful, longer-form writing at work, and even that minority mostly did so very infrequently, but "85 percent of students named producing presentations as a meaningful part of their job responsibilities. Two-thirds report that they present on a daily or weekly basis—so it's no surprise that in-person presentations is the top skill they hope to improve."<ref name="mit-sloan-2017" /> One of the researchers concluded: "We're not likely to see future workplaces with long-form writing. The trend is toward presentations and slides, and we don't see any sign of that slowing down."<ref name="mit-sloan-2017" />

===U.S. military excess===
Use of PowerPoint by the U.S. military services began slowly, because they were invested in mainframe computers, MS-DOS PCs and specialized military-specification graphic output devices, all of which PowerPoint did not support.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |title=Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint |year=2012 |publisher=Vinland Books |isbn=978-0-9851424-0-7 <!-- hardcover ed -->|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC_5OCQQJ7YC |access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624031005/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/sweating-bullets/gaskins-sweating-bullets-webpdf-isbn-9780985142414.pdf <!-- webpdf ed --> |url-status=live |archive-date=June 24, 2017 |pages=428–433 |quote=PowerPoint got off to a very slow start in infiltrating the military forces of the world ... .}}</ref> But because of the strong military tradition of presenting [[:wikt:briefing|briefings]], as soon as they acquired the computers needed to run it, PowerPoint became part of the U.S. military.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gole |first=Henry G. |date=1999 |title=Leadership in Literature |url=http://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/99autumn/autessay.htm |journal=[[Parameters]] |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=134–150 |issn=0031-1723 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918224109/http://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/99autumn/autessay.htm |url-status=live |archive-date=September 18, 2017 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |quote=In the 1990s, the outward signs of form over substance are field grade officers grinding out slick PowerPoint briefing charts ... .}}</ref>

By 2000, ten years after PowerPoint for Windows appeared, it was already identified as an important feature of U.S. armed forces culture, in a front-page story in the ''Wall Street Journal'':<ref name="WSJ-Jaffe-2000">{{Cite news |last=Jaffe |first=Greg |date=April 26, 2000 |title=What's Your Point, Lieutenant? Please, Just Cut to the Pie Charts |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB956703757412556977 |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |department=A-Hed |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |edition=US |page=A1 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ta1rPrxK?url=https://filetea.me/n3wWd80E7jUQBunx1dNjWUTBg |url-status=live |archive-date=September 18, 2017 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Old-fashioned slide briefings, designed to update generals on troop movements, have been a staple of the military since World War II. But in only a few short years PowerPoint has altered the landscape. Just as word processing made it easier to produce long, meandering memos, the spread of PowerPoint has unleashed a blizzard of jazzy but often incoherent visuals. Instead of drawing up a dozen slides on a legal pad and running them over to the graphics department, captains and colonels now can create hundreds of slides in a few hours without ever leaving their desks. If the spirit moves them they can build in gunfire sound effects and images that explode like land mines. ... PowerPoint has become such an ingrained part of the defense culture that it has seeped into the military lexicon. "PowerPoint Ranger" is a derogatory term for a desk-bound bureaucrat more adept at making slides than tossing grenades.}}

U.S. military use of PowerPoint may have influenced its use by armed forces of other countries: "Foreign armed services also are beginning to get in on the act. 'You can't speak with the U.S. military without knowing PowerPoint,' says Margaret Hayes, an instructor at National Defense University in Washington D.C., who teaches Latin American military officers how to use the software."<ref name="WSJ-Jaffe-2000" />

After another 10 years, in 2010 (and again on its front page) the ''New York Times'' reported that PowerPoint use in the military was then "a military tool that has spun out of control":<ref name="NYT-Bumiller-2010">{{Cite news |last=Bumiller |first=Elisabeth |date=April 27, 2010 |title=We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |page=A1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427191554/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html |url-status=live |archive-date=April 27, 2010 |access-date=September 19, 2017}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. The amount of time expended on PowerPoint, the Microsoft presentation program of computer-generated charts, graphs and bullet points, has made it a running joke in the Pentagon and in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making. Not least, it ties up junior officers ... in the daily preparation of slides, be it for a Joint Staff meeting in Washington or for a platoon leader's pre-mission combat briefing in a remote pocket of Afghanistan.}}

The ''New York Times'' account went on to say that as a result some U.S. generals had banned the use of PowerPoint in their operations:<ref name="NYT-Bumiller-2010" />

{{Blockquote|"PowerPoint makes us stupid," Gen. [[James Mattis|James N. Mattis]] of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. [[H. R. McMaster]], who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat. "It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control," General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. "Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable."}}

Several incidents, about the same time, gave wide currency to discussions by serving military officers describing excessive PowerPoint use and the organizational culture that encouraged it.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/essay-dumb-dumb-bullets/ |title=Dumb-dumb Bullets |last=Hammes |first=Thomas X. |author-link=Thomas Hammes |date=July 1, 2009 |website=Armed Forces Journal |issn=0196-3597 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6YlvTTCxK?url=https://filetea.me/t1s4y7by8yxTcuTjnsQfO5ZRA |url-status=live |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-tx-hammes-powerpoint-challenge-essay-contest |title=The T. X. Hammes PowerPoint Challenge |last=Burke |first=Crispin |date=July 24, 2009 |website=Small Wars Journal |issn=2156-227X |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6Ylw4vDnF?url=https://filetea.me/t1sZXwaBBkaTwx02K12wmPwCA |url-status=live |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |access-date=September 19, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130117031309/http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/09/army-colonel-fired-for-powerpoint-rant-090210w/ |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |title=The PowerPoint rant that got a colonel fired |last=Sellin |first=Lawrence |date=September 2, 2010 |website=[[Army Times]] |issn=0004-2595 |url=http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/09/army-colonel-fired-for-powerpoint-rant-090210w/ |url-status=dead |access-date=September 19, 2017}} {{webarchive|format=addlarchives|url=https://archive.today/20150524000432/http://archive.armytimes.com/article/20100902/NEWS/9020339/The-PowerPoint-rant-that-got-a-colonel-fired |date=May 24, 2015}}</ref> In response to the ''New York Times'' story, [[Peter Norvig]] and [[Stephen Kosslyn|Stephen M. Kosslyn]] sent a joint letter to the editor stressing the institutional culture of the military: "... many military personnel bemoan the overuse and misuse of PowerPoint. ... The problem is not in the tool itself, but in the way that people use it—which is partly a result of how institutions promote misuse."<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Norvig |first1=Peter |author-link1=Peter Norvig |last2=Kosslyn |first2=Stephen M. |author-link2=Stephen Kosslyn |date=April 29, 2010 |title=A Tool Only as Good as the User |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/opinion/l30power.html |department=Letters to the Editor |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |edition=New York |publication-date=April 29, 2010 |page=A24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100503115425/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/opinion/l30power.html |url-status=live |archive-date=May 3, 2010 |access-date=September 19, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

The two generals who had been mentioned in 2010 as opposing the institutional culture of excessive PowerPoint use were both in the news again in 2017, when [[James Mattis|James N. Mattis]] became U.S. Secretary of Defense,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/20/senate-confirms-mattis-secretary-of-defense.html |last=Sisk |first=Richard |date=January 20, 2017 |title=Senate Confirms Mattis as Secretary of Defense |website=Military.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122191417/http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/20/senate-confirms-mattis-secretary-of-defense.html |url-status=live |archive-date=January 22, 2017 |access-date=September 18, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and [[H. R. McMaster]] was appointed as U.S. National Security Advisor.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/20/trump-picks-army-lt-gen-mcmaster-national-security-adviser.html |last=McGarry |first=Brendan |date=February 20, 2017 |title=Trump Picks Army Lt. Gen. McMaster as National Security Adviser |website=Military.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222001809/http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/20/trump-picks-army-lt-gen-mcmaster-national-security-adviser.html |url-status=live |archive-date=February 22, 2017 |access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref>

===Artistic medium===
Musician [[David Byrne]] has been using PowerPoint as a medium for art for years, producing a book and DVD and showing at galleries his PowerPoint-based artwork.<ref name="Vienne"/> Byrne has written: "I have been working with PowerPoint, the ubiquitous presentation software, as an art medium for a number of years. It started off as a joke (this software is a symbol of corporate salesmanship, or lack thereof) but then the work took on a life of its own as I realized I could create pieces that were moving, despite the limitations of the 'medium.{{Single double}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://216.92.211.74/art/eeei/ |title=Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information |last=Byrne |first=David |author-link=David Byrne |date=2003 |website=David Byrne Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916033800/http://216.92.211.74/art/eeei/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 16, 2017 |access-date=September 16, 2017}}</ref>

In 2005 Byrne toured with a theater piece styled as a PowerPoint presentation. When he presented it in Berkeley, on March 8, 2005, the University of California news service reported: "Byrne also defended [PowerPoint's] appeal as more than just a business tool—as a medium for art and theater. His talk was titled 'I ♥ PowerPoint'. Berkeley alumnus [[Bob Gaskins]] and [[Dennis Austin]] were in the audience. Eventually, Byrne said, PowerPoint could be the foundation for 'presentational theater,' with roots in Brechtian drama and Asian puppet theater."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Powell |first=Bonnie Azab |date=March 8, 2005 |title=David Byrne really does ♥ PowerPoint, Berkeley presentation shows |url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/08_byrne.shtml |website=UC Berkeley News Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050311025730/http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/08_byrne.shtml |url-status=live |archive-date=March 11, 2005 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> After that performance, Byrne described it in his own online journal: "Did the PowerPoint talk in Berkeley for an audience of IT legends and academics. I was terrified. The guys that originally turned PowerPoint into a program were there, what were THEY gonna think? ... [Gaskins] did tell me afterwards that he liked the PowerPoint as theater idea, which was a relief."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://davidbyrne.typepad.com/db/page/49/ |title=Journal: 3.8.05: San Francisco |last=Byrne |first=David |author-link=David Byrne |date=2005 |website=David Byrne Journal |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170916033610/http://davidbyrne.typepad.com/db/page/49/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 16, 2017 |access-date=September 16, 2017}}</ref>

The expressions "PowerPoint Art" or "[[pptArt]]" are used to define a contemporary Italian artistic movement which believes that the corporate world can be a unique and exceptional source of inspiration for the artist.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nastro |first=Santa |title=Arte e aziende. Nasce il Manifesto della Corporate Art: lo firmano Ugo Nespolo, Alexander Ponomarev e Fernando De Filippi |url=http://www.artribune.com/tribnews/2016/11/arte-aziende-nasce-manifesto-corporate-art-lo-firmano-ugo-nespolo-alexander-ponomarev-fernando-de-filippi/ |newspaper=Artribune |location=Rome |issn=2280-8817 |date=November 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916172548/http://www.artribune.com/tribnews/2016/11/arte-aziende-nasce-manifesto-corporate-art-lo-firmano-ugo-nespolo-alexander-ponomarev-fernando-de-filippi/ |url-status=live |archive-date=September 16, 2017 |access-date=September 16, 2017 |quote=[''Trans.''] The corporate world can be an art object. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pptart.net/manifesto |title=pptArt Manifesto |last=pptArt |author-link=pptArt |date=2014 |website=pptArt.net |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6YkPnogNv?url=https://filetea.me/t1siHirAq8GRca1nkAALDtJ0A |url-status=live |archive-date=May 23, 2015 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> They say: "The pptArt name refers to PowerPoint, the symbolic and abstract language developed by the corporate world which has become a universal and highly symbolic communication system beyond cultures and borders."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pptart.net/corporate |title=Our Services for Corporate Clients |last=pptArt |author-link=pptArt |date=2014 |website=pptArt.net |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6YkPuCnUs?url=https://filetea.me/t1s0zwT0tUpSD2uctnVellocg |url-status=live |archive-date=May 23, 2015 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

The wide use of PowerPoint had, by 2010, given rise to " ... a subculture of PowerPoint enthusiasts [that] is teaching the old application new tricks, and may even be turning a dry presentation format into a full-fledged artistic medium,"<ref>{{Cite news |last=Greenberg |first=Andy |author-link=Andy Greenberg |date=May 11, 2010 |title=The Underground Art Of PowerPoint |url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/microsoft-software-iphone-technology-powerpoint.html |newspaper=Forbes |issn=0015-6914 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630132845/https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/microsoft-software-iphone-technology-powerpoint.html |url-status=live |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |access-date=September 15, 2017}}</ref> by using [[PowerPoint animation]] to create "games, artworks, anime, and movies."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pptheaven.mvps.org/ |title=PowerPoint Heaven: The Power to Animate |last=Toh |first=Shawn |date=2014 |website=PowerPoint Heaven |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170606041637/http://pptheaven.mvps.org/index.html |url-status=live |archive-date=June 6, 2017 |access-date=September 15, 2017 |quote= Our goal is to show users that PowerPoint is not simply a presentation tool, but is also capable on leveraging into other areas such as creating games, artworks and animations.}}</ref>