Pros and Cons of Powerpoints

Problem 1: Presentation medium

• PowerPoint
• Pros
• Simple
• Easy to make
• Small file size
• Straight-forward
• Works well on low-end hardware
• Cons
• Relatively primitive
• Harder to synchronize narration
• Lacks professional look
• Requires software to run
• Difficult to export into universal video format
• Cross-platform and cross-version inconsistencies

The image to the left shows how PowerPoint animation can be created. Tweened motion is created using motion paths - frame by frame editing is unavailable. Diagrams can be created by compiling "autoshapes" together. Moving the shapes within "layers" can become frustrating because you must tell one object to go behind or in front of another. Multiple shapes can be grouped into an object in order to make object manipulation more simple. Free drawing tools are limited. PowerPoint can import popular image formats. Published power point presentations can be exported as web pages, burned to cd's with viewing software preinstalled on the cd (i believe this only works with Windows OS), or simply saved and viewed with the power point program. However, the contest judges view the presentations on an unknown hardware configuration, so complications may arise when publishing the presentation and having it available to be viewed. The animations can be synchronized within a timeline interface - usually, PowerPoints rely on the viewer to "click" to advance slides, but slides can be timed. PowerPoint files are usually small, but can become rather large if imported audio, video, and images are used.