Re: Alternatives to PowerPoint

From: David Yancey <dyancey_at_adjunction.com>
Date: Mon 01 Mar 2004 09:33:58 -0600

As if there were not enough presentations in the digispace already, my
friend Rick Bruner wants tools to create more... <sigh> Well, since I am
creating a new one, Rick, I guess I have to be nice. ;)

One of the toughest problems in certain presentations is how to convey
scenarios over a phased time period. Examples include

- a complex, multi-team, staged development path
- a critical-path milestone chart (showing all make-or-break
interdependencies)
- a segment-by-segment audience penetration plan
- a complex task schedule that stretches over a year or more
- organizational and team evolution steps
- a product migration scenario
- the phases of a market research project

and others.

 From the presentation designer's point of view, these kinds of "evolution"
or scenario charts and drawings are hard enough to do cleanly and clearly,
but the effort is often compounded when some clever colleague points out
that the "x deliverable is not, in fact, dependent on the y milestone, but
on the Z research task" or some similar correction - - causing endless
redrawing of connections, resizing, repositioning, re-pagination - - you
name the pain.

The even bigger problem is that these topics are often at the very heart of
the decision being sought - - especially when we are talking about budgets
or funding. But these kinds of issues are inherently difficult to cover
adequately in the few moments usually available.

A tool I have come to rely on is the Edge Diagrammer (by Pacestar Software
- http://www.pacestar.com - - sorry, no Mac version is offered).

You can learn it quickly - a big plus in my view - and just as quickly
develop very complex flow or time-phased type drawings. Edge is
page-oriented, so it is easy to simply copy these images into Word or
PowerPoint or similar documents. (A major plus, to me, is the ability to
use an image in both hard copy plans and reports as well as
presentations.) Ahh, but when you have to make corrections to scenario or
task elements, then you have the Edge original handy, with Edge's very
strong correction features.


David Yancey
General Manager - Adjunction LLC
http://www.vivante.com - "Web searching *your* way"






Received on Mon Mar 01 2004 - 09:33:58 CST