What Is the Meaning of Microsoft Powerpoint?
PowerPoint is a Microsoft program used to create graphic presentations. It allows home and business users of the software to create visually appealing and informative presentations. PowerPoint was originally designed for business users but has evolved into a tool for teachers, students and home users. A skilled PowerPoint user can create powerful, informative presentations but PowerPoint does have critics. Opponents of PowerPoint say that it emphasizes flash over substance, encourages poor teaching standards and simply makes audiences dumber.
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Description
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PowerPoint is a graphic presentation program from Microsoft. Users insert sounds, movies, graphics and custom animations into presentations. Presentations created with PowerPoint are often referred to as PowerPoints.
History
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Microsoft purchased Presenter from Apple for $14 million in 1987. Presenter was one of the first graphic presentation programs for personal computers. Microsoft renamed it PowerPoint and began to offer it in its Office software suite. Now PowerPoint is the standard in presentation software.
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Uses
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PowerPoint is primarily used to create and view graphic presentations. Businesses, organizations and teachers use the software. PowerPoint is also used by students at all grade levels to create projects that might have been displayed on poster boards in the past.
Extras
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PowerPoint is highly customizable. Though most people use it to present information, it can be an interactive tool. Users can create macros--or automated functions--that can move objects during a presentation, create active text boxes where users can type text during a presentation or perform other tasks.
Concerns
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PowerPoint critics state that poorly created slides may detract from the presentation instead of add substance to it and that PowerPoint makes it easy to create presentations that look impressive without offering much information. Some educators feel that PowerPoint-based instruction is a poor choice because it encourages students to be passive learners. Edward Tufte, a graphic presentation expert from Yale University even argues that poorly designed PowerPoint presentations were a major factor in the 2003 Space Shuttle disaster.
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References
- Photo Credit pie chart 1 image by jovica antoski from Fotolia.com
