Powerpoint morphed and Flashpoints are born
The predicted demise of Powerpoint isn't happening. Flash
has not replaced Powerpoint as the presentation creation tool of choice.
And that's good. Powerpoint is a 
strong
tool, with many supporters who have worked hard to extend its usability
without complicating its operations.
But if you've shied away from putting your corporate presentations online because you were confused about the best way to go about it, you're certainly not alone. Much of the extensibility that's been built into and around Powerpoint has to do with converting its huge files into sleeker, fast loading Flash files that can be seen by nearly everyone.
Today, we're flashing our Powerpoint online and offline. We're:
- producing "video" photo albums from still images inserted into Powerpoint slides
- converting static slides to animated flash slideshows
- converting animated slides to animated flash slideshows
- adding Flash animation to offline static Powerpoint presentations
- adding music or narration to Powerpoint presentations
- converting Powerpoint presentations to flash and then adding music and narrations
- adding live video to static Powerpoint presentations
Flash may indeed be a superior technology from the developers standpoint. The code behind all Microsoft office products has been bemoaned for years. But PowerPoint is easier and less expensive to use. It is a tool and an interface that more people (and by more people, I mean the actual people tasked with creating these presentations) are comfortable with than Flash. It's also a less expensive tool.
Offline Powerproint presentations are also being flashed, with flash animations or flash videos being inserted into Powerpoint slides. It's harder or more expensive for the average Powerpoint user to accomplish this sort of conversion on his own, but they are still doable.
Does it Matter? Yes! And No...
If putting your slide presentation into a flash format
makes it more accessible to a wider audience online, then do it. If importing
flash into individual slides in the presentation you deliver to sales
prospects means you can't gracefully stop your show at any point to answer
a prospect's question, then it should be avoided.
In the end, of course, the only thing that matters is delivering information in a form and format that supports your presentation. Supports, is the keyword here. You never want the slides, graphics, charts, or flash movies to either upstage the message you're trying to convey, or be so far from the norm your audience is used to seeing that they distract and subtract from that message.
Here are some of the articles and other resources we've gathered here that help to illustrate these points, or uncover some of the finer detail points that can help you determine just what form and format is right for a particular presentation:
