Pierce Nichols wrote: > > On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 06:22, Andrew Case wrote: > > > It's a piece by Edward Tufte on the evils of Powerpoint. It may have > > been posted here before, but it's worth reading multiple times, so what > > the heck... > > That is a summary of a larger essay called 'The Cognitive Style of > Powerpoint'. I have a copy, for any local ERPS members who would like to > read it. For everyone else, you can get a copy at > http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters#powerpoint.
The "template-itis" that Tufte complains about seems to be part of this general, annoying tendency of MSware to act like it knows what you're trying to do better than you do. For example, I have had the experience, while using an Excel spreadsheet to organize some notes on parts rejection statistics (previous job with electronics manufacturer) of typing "mfg. defect" and having it appear on the screen as "mfg. Defect"... after retrying this a few times, and satisfying myself that no, I hadn't hit the shift key, I figured out what was happening... the software assumed that since there was a period and a space, preceded and followed by letters, I _must_ have been intending to type a sequence of prose sentences, and it was _determined_ to spare me the embarrassment of omitting the initial caps! Grrr... Fortunately, there was an option (buried in some obscure "preferences" or "properties" window somewhere) by which I could tell it not to do that, but the design paradigm seemed to be that you could turn a million blonde monkeys loose with the software as shipped, and the result might not be Shakespeare but it was darn sure going to look as much as possible like Standard Corporate Paperwork[tm]... -dave w _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
