VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

Doing some editing for my friend, whose client supplies today's script in Powerpoint. Don't get me wrong; there are slides. But they've composed the narration and squeezed it in *on* the slide itself, around the artwork, causing the text box containing the narration to run right along the edge of the slide, in turn causing it to be outside the printer margins and, hence, words get cut off.

If they'd take just a few minutes to learn that Powerpoint has Notes pages, just for speaker notes (or narration), and doesn't require messing with the slides themselves at all, and has plenty of room for the text so that it doesn't risk not being printed.

And I honestly still don't know why some create telephony scripts in Excel.

What next? Buy a spice rack to use as an off-road vehicle?

</vent>
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Mike
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CC Heim · Backstage Pass Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 401

I actually don't mind telephony scripts in Excel, as it works very nicely with Word2WAV!

Mike Harrison · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:31 pm Post subject:

Ah... I'll guess, then, that Word2Wav at least makes the cells readable. That's great.

But Microsoft created a very nice WORD processor called WORD specifically to deal with WORDS, and there are some folks out there who just don't seem to get it.
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:32 pm Post subject:

Dayo · Cinquecento Joined: 10 Jan 2008 Posts: 544 Location: UK

Big up for Word2Wav here. Used to dread Excel scripts!
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 7:20 am Post subject:

heyguido · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 7:35 am Post subject:

heyguido · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 7:43 am Post subject:

Oh.... and then there's this....

Bish · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:01 am Post subject:

Although I hate PowerPoint and totally agree that as a "thinking tool" it's completely useless (and can even be a hindrance to problem solving), there are times when it can be useful. I used to have to do corporate presentations that were status updates etc. The environment dictated that visuals were used, and PowerPoint was the approved corporate tool. The best advice I was ever given was to understand the tool you are using... and one thing that meant that you never used a font smaller than 24pt on a PowerPoint slide. The tool is for headings, bullet points and graphics to keep the audience engaged... not to repeat the presentation's text.

The problem is that some people only learn how to use one tool, and try to use it for everything (c'mon... we've all hammered a screw in at some time) and using an integrated suite of complimentary tools is beyond their capabilities... or maybe just outside their comfort zone if I'm being a little more charitable.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:19 am Post subject:

Yep. Seemingly few go beyond what they know to learn a bit more about their tools.

At a radio station a number of years ago, I walked into the room where the copywriter was working. As I approached from behind, I saw that he was deleting some text: he'd positioned Word's cursor after the last word in the paragraph and was using the backspace key to delete one character at a time... all the way back to the beginning of the paragraph. I asked, "why don't you just highlight and delete?"

"Huh?"
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Mike
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ccpetersen · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:06 am Post subject:

You know, I use Powerpoint quite a bit -- but as a means of easily aggregating imagery into one program that will help me bring it up as I do my presentations. I can easily mix stills, video (most formats), and sound to enhance what I'm doing. You can't just dismiss Hobo Tounge

T as a useless tool -- the tool is only as good as the person who wields it.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:20 pm Post subject:

Indeed, Powerpoint is a very useful tool. It has just gotten a bad rap because it unfortunately has been misused by so many.
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heyguido · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:34 pm Post subject:

It's the tools that use it that give it a bad rap.
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:16 pm Post subject:

win.
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Gregory Best · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:25 pm Post subject:

Engineering types love Excel. I worked with some engineers who wrote letters in Excel. I had to teach them Word. They're numbers people so they misuse what they were most used to using.

I use PowerPoint regularly in negotiating lawsuit settlements. It is great for laying out a few points and to tie evidenced to the facts of a case and to the law. There are different learning styles and some need more visual information to understand complex issues and to retain information.

Many people just put all their text in a presentation and read it. Useless and unprofessional.
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