Did a talk on VSTS today
you should have seen the slides. There was stuff flying all over the place, pictures, arrows with weird ends on them, things fading in and out, circles *pulsing*. I think I even saw a dancing bear. sheesh. I'm not sure how well the content went over, but dang, it was entertaining slideware.
I miss the days when slides were just blue backgrounds with yellow words. Truthfully, I've never found a better tool to present with than VS.NET. Open the freaking editor and have at it. We can catch problems in the code on the fly, and those little squiggles will separate the pretenders from the real coders. If we need bulleted items, add comments. If you can't do it in a code editor, does it really matter anyways?
If you have to use PPTs, and most of us do, then I have a few words of truth regarding them:
- Ugly slides are a badge of honor. Don't let anyone deceive you.
- There's just something implicitly wrong with hitting F5 to start a powerpoint show. F5 should be reserved for devs and IDEs.
- Any slide with more than 3 colors should not be trusted. Real content doesn't need a paint job.
- too much stuff flying around makes me nervous. Just put stuff where you want it and leave it there.
- If a PPT doesn't fit on a floppy disk, it's too long.
- The best presentation tool is not Powerpoint. It's VS.NET. The second best tool is Notepad.
- A good presenter can usually (but not always) give just as capturing of a talk with no slides as with slides.
OK, I admit that I've violated all of the above. Today, actually. Maybe this blog is merely the unburdening of shame and guilt, and will help me sleep. Maybe this is really just about personal therapy. Maybe I'm just recoiling from the displeasure of waiting on animated crap to quit flying around my slides so I can cover the topic. Regardless, I feel better now.
