We thought we had seen presentation disaster at its worst with the last set of PowerPoint slides. We were wrong. These train wrecks, captured in all their not-so-fiery infamy, show what truly terrible PPT slides can do to burn innocent audiences everywhere. Don’t Hate the Technology, Hate the Playa’Before you begin viewing the PPT carnage, you must always remember the cardinal rule of presentations: “PowerPoint Doesn’t Kill Presentations. People Do.” Learn it. Know it. Live it. (If you missed the first installment, see 8 PowerPoint Train Wrecks.)Massive Text-plosionI spy some white space at the top there, just under that insanely catchy “Stakeholders and Communities with Web 2.0 +” headline, where you could add some more text. (For more on what not to do, check out 5 Ways to Ruin Your Next Presentation.)A Real Neck-Bender (and Head-Scratcher)When attempting to read this slide, it helps if you can turn your head (or eyes, if possible) in a continuous, circular 360-degree motion. I can easily envision Steve Jobs using the same type of slide. (For more on Jobs, see CIO.com’s The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.)Presentation Irony, Part IIf this slide doesn’t define irony, then I don’t know what does.Presentation Irony, Part IIOops! I spoke too soon on the previous slide. This slide attempts to explain the details of an online survey on “what annoyed audiences most about PowerPoint presentations”: 120.7% of respondents said: “Slides Are Too Complicated.” Math and English extra help anyone?Can I Get an Acronym?The color coding is nice and maybe this was all germane to the audience, but—OMG—that’s a lot of tech acronyms in one slide. (Reminds of me of Jeopardy: “I’ll take ‘RDFa Semantics’ for $400, Alex.”)JPEG versus GIF Battle Royale!Good seats still available for this presentation! (Sometimes, the minimalist approach to slides can go horribly wrong.)Grand SlamThe photographer of this slide states: “Note the use of every possible crime against taste: clipart, wordart, caps, initial caps and even comic sans—oh, and every single one of the three words on screen is meaningless jargon. It got worse.” Yikes! (Also see: 10 PowerPoint Tips.)Clipart CatastropheMind you, this slide aims to help people: “Effective Presentations Using PowerPoint” is the title, noted at the bottom. Also be sure to note that, purportedly, 76 slides come before this one.The Visible Effects of Too Many PresentationsTo document his enjoyment of this presentation, Daniel Greene took a photo of himself with his MacBook’s built-in camera. Citizen journalism can be harsh, people. (See 5 Key Audience Questions to Help You Read the Room for more on this topic.)Remember: It’s Called Microsoft PowerPoint……and not Microsoft BulletPoint! This satirical image—in its own way—pays homage to and mocks the disastrous consequences of too many bullets in presentation slides. (If you missed the first installment, see 8 PowerPoint Train Wrecks.)Also see:How 10 Famous Technology Products Got Their Names Do you Tweet? Follow me on Twitter @twailgum. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Related content feature 4 reasons why gen AI projects fail Data issues are still among the chief reasons why AI projects fall short of expectations, but the advent of generative AI has added a few new twists. By Maria Korolov Oct 04, 2023 9 mins Data Science Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence feature What a quarter century of digital transformation at PayPal looks like Currently processing a volume of payments worth over $1.3 trillion, PayPal has repeatedly staked its claim as a digital success story over the last 25 years. But insiders agree this growth needs to be constantly supported by reliable technological ar By Nuria Cordon Oct 04, 2023 7 mins Payment Systems Digital Transformation Innovation news analysis Skilled IT pay defined by volatility, security, and AI Foote Partners’ Q3 report on IT skills pay trends show AI and security skills were in high demand, and the value of cash-pay premiums was more volatile but their average value across a broad range of IT skills and certifications was slightly do By Peter Sayer Oct 04, 2023 6 mins Certifications Certifications Certifications brandpost Future-Proofing Your Business with Hyperautomation By Veronica Lew Oct 03, 2023 7 mins Robotic Process Automation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe