Next Slide, Please

September 10, 2023 9:37 AM

Dennis Austin, co-creator of PowerPoint, has died. Originally released in 1987, Austin served as PowerPoint’s primary developer from 1985 to 1996. No word yet on what unnecessary animation was used to transition him from this life to the next.
posted by zooropa (31 comments total)

For a retrospective on how PowerPoint changed presentations, see this recent post.
posted by zamboni at 9:54 AM on September 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

☐
posted by May Kasahara at 9:58 AM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

No word yet on what unnecessary animation was used to transition him from this life to the next

Fade to black.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:06 AM on September 10, 2023 [9 favorites]

Ah. I never knew who to blame.

.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:06 AM on September 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

I hope it was a Yoda-like fade.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:10 AM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Rest in PPT

.
posted by dr_dank at 10:11 AM on September 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

Next life, please? Can you go to the next li- no no, too far, go back one!

Honestly, I love Powerpoint. Unlike Excel and Word, it has never made me cry in frustration.

.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:25 AM on September 10, 2023 [9 favorites]

•

•

•
•
•

•

•
•

posted by logicpunk at 10:55 AM on September 10, 2023 [32 favorites]

posted by away for regrooving at 11:04 AM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

•
posted by lalochezia at 11:14 AM on September 10, 2023

.
posted by token-ring at 11:16 AM on September 10, 2023

I've written a lot of code. I spent 40 years writing code for banking, scientific, business and scientific research. I would hope that, in the end no one would mock me. I did the best that I could do, given the constraints.
posted by SPrintF at 12:38 PM on September 10, 2023 [28 favorites]

Click to add condolence
posted by staggernation at 12:56 PM on September 10, 2023

Russell Davies’s book Everything I Know About Life I Learned From PowerPoint covers a bit of the unusually diverse team led by Austin that created and built PPT pre-Microsoft. Then it turns into a series of brilliant, solid recommendations on public speaking and slide design. “Powerpoint gives you power” so learn how to use it, is the book’s message.
posted by migurski at 1:01 PM on September 10, 2023 [6 favorites]

"VisiCalc is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979."
posted by neuron at 1:15 PM on September 10, 2023

PowerPoint is a good programme. I hope he had a great life.
posted by plonkee at 1:45 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Lately, PowerPoint has become a much more useful tool than Microsoft Visio for quickly generating diagrams and flowcharts. And integrates better into my company's document systems.

So as much as I hate what people do with PowerPoint, I love the program.

.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:57 PM on September 10, 2023 [9 favorites]

Dave Winer have anything to say about this (he or his company essentially invented the category when he published a "Thought Processor" for the Mac called "More" around 1986)?

I used it on a Mac Plus, and it was a game-changer. Although we used it as an outliner and to organize our thoughts, and then rewrote the presentation (using markers on acetates) or the paper (using Word 5.1 for the mac) which is still all 99% of all the word processor 99% of the word-processor-using population needs
posted by morspin at 1:58 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Powerpoint is about the only Microsoft program I don't loathe.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:20 PM on September 10, 2023

If you have to/choose to use PowerPoint, please search for, "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint." It is a wonderful short essay about how NOT to use PowerPoint. I used to give every new trainer in my office a copy when I was a mentor.

I am still happily known at the guy who will shout out, "Can't read it!" in response to a wall of 12-point text whether it is a five person meeting or a 500 person conference presentation.
posted by ITravelMontana at 2:27 PM on September 10, 2023 [10 favorites]

I used to do layout for a small paper tied to an Army base. People had a questionable or nonexistence sense of what was suitable for print in terms of graphics. More than once, I'd be given a PowerPoint presentation consisting of one slide that was meant to be a flier for something. And as much as I understood this (PP is the one "graphic design" program that people know how to use and have access to), it didn't make my life any easier.

(Many things -- most things, honestly -- about that job was terrible. I stopped fighting most things and just turned it into "I'm going to see what I can do.")

Everytime I set out to make a PP presentation, even if I'm using a template, it always takes infinitely longer than I think it should.
posted by edencosmic at 3:03 PM on September 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint (PDF)
posted by kirkaracha at 5:00 PM on September 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

• .
• Thanks, Dennis

posted by JoeXIII007 at 5:23 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Earliest known PPT presentation.
posted by Wet Spot at 6:01 PM on September 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 10:01 PM on September 10, 2023

.
Thanks Dennis, I love some good PowerPoint. (Having built hundreds of decks, I still prefer it to newer, or 'web-based' offerings... Sway can just go away IMO)
posted by rozcakj at 8:01 AM on September 11, 2023

•
posted by introp at 8:50 AM on September 11, 2023

ironically today I have been assigned my first ever powerpoint deck and I am furious. He must have seen me coming.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:56 AM on September 11, 2023

Ideally his funeral will consist of his obituary on a PowerPoint slide that will then be read in its full verbatim entirety to the attendants.

.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:34 PM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

"VisiCalc is the first spreadsheet computer program..."

LOL, I conflated PowerPoint and Excel.
posted by neuron at 11:46 AM on September 12, 2023

"b"

(the key that turns your screen black when you're running a slide show)
posted by yellowcandy at 3:06 PM on September 12, 2023