On Powerpoint

[Bill Moore]

The next step (I hope) is to simplify the user-software interface so the user doesn't have to be a software engineer, but rather an expert in his field that can use this software to effectively augment his/her analysis and ability to present the results.

http://nvac.pnl.gov/

“Seeing is knowing, though merely seeing is not enough. When you understand what you see, seeing becomes believing.”
~Pak Chung Wong, PNNL Scientist

I recommend reading the executive summary for Illuminating the Path: The Research and Development Agenda for Visual Analytics at the link below.

http://nvac.pnl.gov/agenda.stm

I know some of the more traditional among our members said to forget producing a better crystal ball in another forum, but with the proper use of science we can produce a "better" crystal ball, but we'll never produce a perfect one.

Back to powerpoint and where I think it may evolve to, let's face it powerpoint is a more powerful tool for presenting information than the old method of using boucher block or briefing off a sand table (though the sand table is still a requirement in my book). Unfortunately, like a lot of things the military touches it became stupid, and some idiots were more concerned with font size, style, back ground and the number of bullets on a particular slide, instead of encouraging their staff to use their imagination to find the best ways to "effectively" present their brief.

[Spud]

some idiots were more concerned with font size, style, back ground and the number of bullets on a particular slide, instead of encouraging their staff to use their imagination to find the best ways to "effectively" present their brief.

To be fair though much have this has been in response to the idiots that think it is completely appropriate to populate a single slide with a complete OPORD. Fonts, the amount and type of information presented and the background it is on all impact on the reader/viewer's ability to comprehend the information being presented.

My concern with PowerPoint has always been that without firm guidance on what is appropriate (just like we have for other forms of official corro/writing etc) you get lunatics who think that progressing bullet at a time with a supporting sound effect to announce the entrance is best use of the program. That's what my son does in Grade 6 in his IT assignments ... how commissioned officers ever thought it was appropriate is beyond me.

The first thing I always do on entering an organisation is seek to simplify and then standardise a PowerPoint style manual ... I guarantee you the boss appreciates it far more than everyone considering the slide deck as their own palette. If this makes me a PowerPoint Nazi that spends too long on the small stuff I’m happy to take the moniker … If PowerPoint is meant to be a visual aid (and from my perspective that’s what it is – it supports the brief) and it doesn’t aid because everyone remains completely distracted by the format, style and randomness of the content we have failed to use the tool.

The real issue is the thought process among staffers who believe that PowerPoint is not formal correspondence ... you wouldn't prepare an OPORD with a cubist interpretation ... why the hell do we do it with presentations?

[Eden]

From Army magazine, published about six years ago, an article on mastering powerpoint:


http://www3.ausa.org/webint/DeptArmy...id/CCRN-6CCS9J

[Bill Moore]

The first thing I always do on entering an organisation is seek to simplify and then standardise a PowerPoint style manual ...

Welcome to the industrial age, we're breaking new ground here. Ensure everyone puts their pencil in their left sleeve pocket, and that boot laces are left over right, and underwear is Army issue, standardization is the key to mass production and......

[Hacksaw]

Well that's just the point isn't Bill...

When a picture really does paint a 1000 words, who wants to constrain the use of the picture...

Problem is that when we fail to include an "adult" in the loop to avoid the idiocy described by eden...

We get a hodgepodge of 100 MB briefings that actually cloud the leaders understanding as opposed to enlightening...

I'm not saying that Eden's approach is "fool-proof" only that it minimizes some forms of foolishness...

The better solution is a series of guidelines for staff officers to adhere to per SOP and that are deviated from as conscious decision... add in an XO/S3/CoS in the loop to "approve" deviations from the SOP...

To often when no constraints are placed on the use, junior "leaders" are apt to misguidedly go for the Wow Factor because they think it is a means to distinguish themselves from their peers...

The horror the horror

Live well and row

[Bill Moore]

To often when no constraints are placed on the use, junior "leaders" are apt to misguidedly go for the Wow Factor because they think it is a means to distinguish themselves from their peers...

To be fair you and Spud have valid points, but while the young (or just immature and not so young) can abuse the bells and whistles which add nothing to the brief, and simply serve to confuse and eat up bandwidth, the SOP approach can be abused also. An OPORD brief is a standard brief, so SOP away; however, you can use powerpoint for much more than an OPORD brief. If you're attempting to explain a complex situation (information brief) they can be useful. I'll attempt to find an unclassified example.

[Schmedlap]

To often when no constraints are placed on the use, junior "leaders" are apt to misguidedly go for the Wow Factor because they think it is a means to distinguish themselves from their peers...

In defense of we youngsters, I never encountered an O-3 staff officer (BDE or below) who seemed to care all that much about what the slide looked like. It was a shell with blanks that needed to be filled in with numbers, colors, shapes, and brevity codes. On the other hand, my Company Commander freaked out when I was a Platoon Leader and put together a slideshow (as ordered) to brief the BC on the conduct of a range. My faux pas? I did not include the brigade crest in the upper left of the master slide or the battalion crest in the upper right. Thankfully, I was not relieved. Later, when I was a junior CPT acting as S-3, a hypermotivated MAJ at BDE kicked back my QTB and Gunnery slides no less than a dozen times for purely cosmetic reasons (often demanding that I redo my previous undo). (I eventually got him back. My last act as S-3 was to RECLAMA the OPORD for deployment back to Iraq).

To be fair you and Spud have valid points, but while the young (or just immature and not so young) can abuse the bells and whistles which add nothing to the brief, and simply serve to confuse and eat up bandwidth...

Bandwidth. You got it. That was my peeve. In 2005, in a dusty patrol base in Iraq, I received an email that stated simply, "Download attached slides and comply immediately. Report when complete." This was from BDE, forwarded immediately by Bn. I thought, wow, sounds important. The slideshow was a zipped file, about 8 megabytes in size. When unzipped, it was outlandishly enormous. I had to kick everybody off of the internet so that my laptop could monopolize the bandwidth and download the file in under 40 minutes. Once I finally downloaded it and my worn out laptop strained to open the file, I found an 84-slide presentation (that's EIGHTY-FOUR) on how to inspect an AT-4 for serviceability. No ####. What Private doesn't learn this in basic training?

It was a digital photography extravaganza showing, step-by-step, how to check to ensure the sights are present and not broken and other apparently complicated things. The best part was that the date/time of the photos were in the lower right corner of each photo. The photos were taken over a 5 HOUR period. WTF? Some sorry staff weiner spent 5 hours snapping pictures to illustrate one of the simplest tasks in the skill level 1 manual. I am guessing that he spent another two hours putting the slides together, judging from the time that the file was saved.

Now, I've worked with some hypermotivated, overcaffeinated individuals in my day, but none had succumbed to this degree of masochism. Putting together this slideshow monstrosity could only have been the idea of somebody above O-3. I don't know how high up the rank structure one must go in order to think that this made any sense, but no CPT hates himself that much. It had to be at least a MAJ.