Internet Outlook with Richard Wiggins | 71

Presentation Software versus HTML for Live Delivery

Let's say you do choose HTML for your live presentation. How well does it work? Powerpoint and other presentation tools have slide show playback modules geared specifically for the live presentation. Each "slide" takes up the full screen of the PC that's connected to the LCD projector. You can advance slides at the click of the mouse; many speakers use infrared hand-held mice so they can advance slides from across the stage. You can invoke a drawing tool for live underscoring or enhancement of diagrams.

The effect is as efficient as moving from one old-fashioned transparency to the next -- plus, all your slides are in color, and you can update your presentation on the plane on the way to your speaking gig.

By contrast, HTML makes a relatively poor presentation tool. Unless you go to a lot of effort in building your Web presentation, the "playback" is far less smooth than with Powerpoint. The audience sees rough transitions as you follow internal hyperlinks, and there's often extraneous text on screen. None of the HTML talks at Access '97 were as smooth as the Powerpoint talks.

The Bad News About Powerpoint

When you have a newer version of the software and an older format Powerpoint file, in theory the new version is supposed to read the older file. But this doesn't always work! More than once I've been conservative and brought an older format file to a speaking engagement, and watched in horror as, say, Powerpoint 95 refuses to read a Powerpoint 4 file.

Then there's the free viewer. This tool is freely downloadable and distributable. But for Office 97, Microsoft failed to deliver a free viewer for the new format for months after Office 97 came out. Presenters who travel to remote speaking assignments either had to have their laptops, or had to ensure that Office 97 was installed at the remote site.

Finally, the Powerpoint Viewer for Office 97, now finally available, has grown huge. It's too big to fit on a floppy, and, at a couple of meg, too large to download over the 28.8 modem in the hotel ballroom just before your presentation.