Eye Magazine

PowerPoint, bundled with Microsoft Office, is promoted by its makers as the ultimate presentation tool for the time-poor. ‘Spend less time formatting your presentation and more time developing your message,’ commands the website. ‘What if you could achieve more in less time, share knowledge more easily with colleagues. . . are you ready for the smarter way to work?’ asks the demonstration program on the MS website.

Users can save even more time by checking out the shortcuts in the ‘Tips & Tricks’ section. What’s more – should you feel uneasy about all the unexpected leisure time that PowerPoint has liberated in your life – you can always ‘add pizzazz to your presentation’ with ‘clip art from the design gallery’.

PowerPoint is a program for all seasons, all eventualities, where every situation, however complex, multi-faceted or baffling, can be reduced to a series of bullet points. And if you have to break bad news to your colleagues, don’t worry – PowerPoint has been there before. It feels your pain, it holds out hope for redemption with a step-by-step, seven-point plan.