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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Who says slide shows have to be boring?

By Rachel Osterman
Chicago Tribune

By itself, Dan Huffman calculated, PowerPoint would "bore the kids to tears."

So Huffman, who uses the popular Microsoft Corp. program to teach Sunday-school lessons, bought a software tool that allows him to infuse his presentations with animated characters that talk, dance and communicate biblical themes on every slide.

In so doing, Huffman tapped into a booming cottage industry based on invigorating PowerPoint, the presentation program that has become so ubiquitous as to inspire a backlash.

"PowerPoint alone is boring," said Huffman, a children's pastor in Grayslake, Ill. "I try to use a language that today's generation can understand. For kids, that language looks a lot more like Nickelodeon than the church their parents are used to."

The problem with PowerPoint, critics maintain, is that it has become so pervasive that every lecture looks the same. At the same time, presenters use the software as a crutch, relying on drab bullet points and charts to convey their message instead of engaging their audience through spontaneous interactions.

All of which has provided PowerPoint-weary entrepreneurs with plenty of opportunities.

There are the programmers who have designed plug-ins and add-ons to jazz up what they consider a static program.

There are the public speaking coaches who advise businessmen and women on ways to use PowerPoint effectively.

And then there are the public speaking coaches who counsel these same professionals not to use PowerPoint.

Some 30 to 40 software companies are in business to enhance PowerPoint. And at least several hundred consultants, make their living by offering PowerPoint seminars and tips.

PowerPoint was created in 1984 and later bought by Microsoft. It didn't become wildly popular until the early 1990s, and it only reached market dominance when the software giant bundled the program with its Windows operating system.

Software companies offer a range of products to enhance PowerPoint.

Xcelsius, for example, converts spreadsheets into "dynamic and animated" PowerPoint slides. Vox Proxy is the program of pastor Huffman's choice.