PowerPoint means presentation power - Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 4.0 presentation software - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, May, 1994 by William Harrel

Rating: * * * 1/2 PowerPoint Version Reviewed: 4.0 List Price: $495 Average Street Price: $350 Publisher: Microsoft, (206) 882-8080, (800) 426-9400

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Let's face it, most of us don't create presentations every day. So it helps when a presentation program is not only easy to learn but easy to relearn, too. Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 for Windows gets high marks on both counts.

Frankly, the latest version of PowerPoint does not bombard you with new features. But among the enhancements boasted by this long-awaited upgrade (now an integral component of the publisher's $750 Microsoft Office software suite) are many that reorient you each time you fire up the program. These include an animated tutorial, Quick Previews, which helps any time you forget a procedure (such as how to create a graph or embed a multimedia file), and Cue Cards, which provide step-by-step advice for common tasks (such as what to do after you select a template). Cue Cards, somewhat like the Advisors found in Harvard Graphics, also provide valuable design information, such as which charts to use with what kind of data.

Like Microsoft Word 6.0 and Microsoft Publisher 2.0, PowerPoint now incorporates Wizards--automated templates that create presentations for you based on a set of questions you answer at the beginning of the procedure. In PowerPoint, Microsoft enhances the Wizards concept by adding AutoContent, which lets you set the tone of your presentation based on what you have to say. AutoContent Wizards can, for example, tell you what points to make and how to arrange them when your goal is to make a sales pitch or convey bad news.

You'll find many other usability enhancements, such as tear-off toolbars that can be resized and moved around your work area so that they are always close at hand. You'll also find the Click Here technology that was developed by Lotus for Freelance Graphics--to use it, you simply click on a place holder on your slides to insert objects, such as headings, bulleted lists, charts, and graphs. There is also a high level of integration with other products in the Microsoft Office, including Word and Excel. In fact, more than 100 features, from italicizing text to inserting graphics, work exactly the same in all three programs. Learn one Microsoft application and you're well on your way to mastering the others.

PowerPoint ships with several templates that contain breathtaking color washes and boast professional design quality. On the other hand, PowerPoint allows only one master slide per presentation (you use the master to set such elements as the background and the area in which you'll place objects), and deviating from it is not easy. You still must wade into several layers of dialog boxes to turn off all the check boxes in the background elements, for example. In any case, Auto Layout helps finesse your presentation by easily sizing charts and symbols.

Another highlight is the implementation of a new version of Object Linking and Embedding--known as OLE 2.0. OLE is the technology used by Windows to create dynamic links among documents and different applications. An example of OLE would be placing (or embedding) an Excel spreadsheet (considered an object) into a Word for Windows document. If you were to tweak some numbers in Excel, the changes would automatically be reflected in your Word document. OLE 2.0 not only lets you create links between objects pasted from the clipboard, but you can also drag and drop between documents and even applications. This makes it a snap to drag text and graphics among PowerPoint presentations, as well as drag in data to your presentation from Excel and Word. (Don't get too crazy with this, though--OLE 2.0 is still a fairly new standard, and it's something of a resource hog.)

PowerPoint isn't intended for high-end presentation experts. Although it can create three-dimensional effects such as shading or embossing, it can't create true three-dimensional text and graphics, like Micrografx's Charisma 4.0 presentation program. Nor does it approach that program's expertise in other areas, such as warping and bending objects and handling an extensive number of chart types. But then again, the more intuitive PowerPoint doesn't require as much processing power or skill.

If you want a presentation graphics package that won't waste your time, check out PowerPoint. It pushes ease-of-use to the limit. For many casual presenters who also use Word for Windows and Excel, it simply doesn't make much sense to use any other presentation program.