I am concerned that this individual’s decision to use the timing feature in PowerPoint rather than advancing the slide manually has destroyed his credibility to judge others in this area. I agree that the use of comic sans is a horrible tragedy, but so are individuals who use the word “ploferating” in a public presentation while they exhale unnecessarily into the mic and touch their own projection in order to drive home their point.

In my mind, bad PowerPoint presentations (even in the service of comedy) are a much more egregious crime than poor font choice. Let this man stand as a warning of what not to do when addressing the public… even when your point is hilarious.

Now after having seen this video I have to review my Sunday bulletin before it goes to print. Thanks.

I agree–dislike comic sans font!

Having a 5000 hour patch from the Air Force for PowerPoint, I have to agree…font is critical, even though I hate PowerPoint. It leads to laziness. But I have to agree. Good people (German Lutherans) choose bad fonts (Fractur)!

What font would Jesus use? A baptismal font.

Wow I never realized the danger in which we are all living!

I don’t care for it either. Of the other fonts on his poster of bad fonts, the ones I’ve used have been Vivaldi (for email signatures) and Copperplate (which works great in red to write the words RED SOX). He says don’t use an “overused” font–but the fact is that if you’re sending documents, you want the document to appear on the recipient’s computer in the font which you used. That means using a font that exists on all, or almost all, computers. That, in turn, means Times New Roman, Arial, and maybe Georgia or Antiqua. I liked Century Schoolbook, but a lot of the newer computers no longer have it; likewise Garamond, which I thought looked very classy (though it ran very small–to have real 10-point type when using Garamond, you had to be set at 12 points).

Brings to mind an ad I remember seeing from the early days of desktop publishing that started “Do your documents look like ransom notes?”

@Mike Baker
I know this comment was in jest, but maybe you should check into why his slides were auto-advancing on a timer feature: http://ignitempls.org/.

@Stephanie

I am familiar with speed presentations. I agree with Phw. PowerPoint leads to laziness. This is but one example. Why train in rhetoric and practice your presentation enough so that you hit the time limit consistantly through your own skill? Instead, you can make the machine awkwardly drive your presentation along so clumsily that you have to actually ask your audience not to throw you off of the time table.

Who is giving the presentation: you or the slideshow?

PowerPoint auto-advance features and various horrible font choices must be confronted with the same sage advice: “Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean that you SHOULD.”

@Mike Baker
Fair points! I do agree, especially in regards to PowerPoint and fonts, with what you said “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

I’m at an unfair advantage because I know the guy in the video, and I know the reasons maybe why it isn’t as polished as some would like or perceive. I’ll respectfully rest my case.