What comes to mind when you hear PowerPoint? Is it an urge to create some slides? A memory of so many great presentations you've sat through? Or maybe countless hours spent making, adjusting, and fixing slides?
For those of us who are lucky enough to never have to create another slide deck in PowerPoint again, it's a distant memory we don't like to revisit. We remember the last time we had to create one as if it was a huge, life-changing event. Mine was in high school, the topic was amphibians, and nobody, including me, was looking forward to it. PowerPoint just makes everything feel like a boring seminar you can't wait to be over.
We're still stuck with PowerPoint
You have to give it to PowerPoint - for software that's been around for 36 years, it's still going strong. Estimates show that its 500 million monthly users create around 30 million presentations per day. But not everything created in PowerPoint is actually a presentation, at least not the way it was meant to be.
When PowerPoint first came out, it was just supposed to be a simple presenting tool. An easier way of showing graphics and key information back when overhead projectors were the standard. But as computers got better, so did PowerPoint. Now you can add videos, images, links - way more than just text and simple graphics.
And since PowerPoint comes with MS Office, everyone has access to it. That's why people started using it for way more than presentations. Graphics, full business proposals exported to PDF - you name it. People are using PowerPoint for things it was never designed to do. So yeah, no wonder it's such a pain to work with.
PowerPoint actually messes with your brain
You could say PowerPoint only fails when you use it wrong. But even when you're just making regular presentations, research shows PowerPoint actually has negative effects on how our brains work.
Your brain can't keep up
Ever notice how hard it is to watch slides and listen to someone talk at the same time? That's because your brain literally struggles to do both. You end up either reading the slides or listening to the speaker, but not really catching everything. The fix should be simple - just use PowerPoint for images and let the presenter do the talking. But PowerPoint makes it so tempting to throw in a few bullet points that most people just can't help themselves.
It's boring by design
If you've ever zoned out during a PowerPoint presentation, don't feel bad - science says it's not your fault. Slideshows just go from one slide to the next in these repetitive sequences. It's predictable, it oversimplifies everything, and it basically puts your brain on autopilot. No wonder everyone gets bored.
The story gets lost
Another problem with PowerPoint - it makes you squeeze your story into whatever fits on a slide. You end up turning complex ideas into these simple bullet points that lose all the important context. And then you're left wondering if anyone actually understood what you were trying to say.
It's just what we're used to
Look, most offices use MS Office, so we all just default to it. It's familiar. Or maybe there just aren't better options? Need a contract? Open Word. Business proposal? Word again. Or if you're tired of fighting with formatting, you'll probably just make it in PowerPoint and export to PDF. Let's be honest - it's just a habit at this point.
Think about how you consume content today. Why do we all scroll through social media for hours? Because it's interactive, it's online, and you don't have to download anything. You just click a link and boom, there it is.
So why are we still sending business documents like it's 1995?
Nobody actually wants a PDF
Your clients will download a PDF if they have to. Just like you'll make a PowerPoint if you have no choice. But you do have a choice now. Online document software exists. More businesses are switching to it every day. And if you're still sending PDFs and Word docs, you're getting left behind.
There's a better way to do this
Old-school business documents just don't cut it anymore. People expect speed and convenience now - it affects their buying decisions. And PDFs? They offer neither.
Modern proposals are different. They're responsive, interactive, and actually engaging. You can add pricing tables that work, e-signatures, videos, even instant payment options. It's what clients expect these days, and web-based proposals actually deliver on that.
But it's not just better for your clients. It's better for you too. With tools like Wonit, you get real tracking and analytics - something traditional documents could never give you. You can see exactly who looked at your proposal, which sections they spent time on, and what caught their attention.
That kind of data helps you get better at this. You start to see patterns in what works and what doesn't. Maybe your sales team needs training on a specific part of the pitch. Maybe your proposals need more consistency. Whatever it is, you've got the data to actually fix it instead of just guessing.