Accelerated PowerPoint?

darkjohnson writes "If you're looking for an excuse to offer your manager to approve that high end graphics card so you can play Doom 3 at full tilt (on your 'breaks' ;) you might want to check out the Instant Effects' technology as it has the first product (OfficeFX) that justifies upgrading your display hardware so you can do a POWER POINT presentation of all things. Especially true if you're the one stuck with the duty of making them look good. I saw this at Siggraph and was not only impressed with the look but the number of people packed into the booth to see it demoed, competing side by side with real time 3D game renders and high-end effects software."

Comments

Re:Tufte on PowerPoint

[danila]

Gee, you're smart. Here is news - most people who use PowerPoint are not so smart. Give them a market and place them next to the whiteboard and they will either have a heart attack from their inability to communicate or bore the audience to death with it.

PowerPoint can be a crutch to mediocre people, without it they would in many cases be unable to explain that sales are up 15%. PowerPoint helps them do it and even if some of them overdo animations, the benefits still outweight that.

Personally I find PowerPoint indespensible in several cases. First, it was great to design presentations you give to your clients/partners/investors, regardless of whether you use a projector or a printed copy. A printed copy is also extremely useful as a tangible reminder to the audience about the content (together with their written notes). Second, PowerPoint is a great lecturing tool - much better than a white (or green) board, because you don't waste 50% of the time writing something and because many students fail to pay attention if you only attack their hearing. :) Yes, PP can be abused, but it can be used effectively too.

As for the accelerated graphics, this is great, no doubt about it. There is no reason why I wouldn't want to make slides as good as those shown by Bill Gates and no reason why a modern PC should not be able to render them. Of course, this particular product probably is not that good overall - they appear to want to make you paying through the nose for the design of new templates and it requires latest Microsoft DRM (with the .Net framework managed code). But the idea itself is great.