Is PowerPoint dead yet?

You don’t have to be in the world of marketing long before you hear someone take a shot at PowerPoint, branding it as an antiquated tool whose days are numbered. But this sentiment is tempered by the reality that more than 500 million people still use PowerPoint and no clear successor or alternative has presented itself.

An article in last week’s WSJ explores the topic yet again, this time accusing PowerPoint of everything from boring students to killing astronauts.

While I acknowledge that PowerPoint has clear limitations (particularly as a live presentation tool), I do think that the easy-to-use, bullet point format holds a simplistic value that won’t be easily pushed aside. Maybe we just need to reevaluate how we use this tool; perhaps exploring how it can be paired with audio and video to create simple presentations that can be easily shared.

But I’m interested to know what you think. Is PowerPoint dead?

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