Winning Strategies for Power Presentations: Jerry Weissman Delivers Lessons from the World’s Best Presenters

42. Why Use PowerPoint at All?

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Considering the universal disapproval by critics, audiences, and even by presenters themselves, why would anyone use PowerPoint? The software—and its usage—have developed a universally negative reputation characterized by the common epithet, “Death by PowerPoint.”

After all, the memorable speeches of history did not use PowerPoint:

• Cicero’s orations in the Roman Forum

• Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

• Winston Churchill’s World War II rally to arms

• Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights speech

• John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

• Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” Berlin speech

• Barack Obama’s “Cinderella” keynote

So why, indeed, would anyone use PowerPoint? The simple ...