{"id":187,"date":"2013-06-02T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/2013\/06\/02\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:15:41","slug":"caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/","title":{"rendered":"“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The previous post<\/a> alluded to the fact that the fault for bad presentations does not lie with the presentation software. The master of presenting data and information, Edward Tufte, has erudite thoughts<\/a> on the matter. “Powerpoint is like being trapped inside the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representations.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

His point is that the software itself imposes significant limitations on the abilities of the presenter to deliver effective presentations; “there is no coherent software for serious presentations,” principally because presenters are, “caught up within a single style of visual presentation”. Powerpoint (in its various commercial guises) is all that presenters aspire to and <\/span><\/span>thus attempts to communicate our complex, multi-dimensional world using this <\/span><\/span>are bound to be severely limited. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The development of new communication styles within the monopoly established by powerpoint type programs will take time to become accepted and established. The p cubed<\/span><\/span> (p<\/span>3<\/sup>)<\/span><\/span> concept is that developing the story first<\/a> will alter the whole nature of communication; it is not giving a powerpoint<\/a>, it’s about an altered perspective.<\/span><\/span>
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The previous post alluded to the fact that the fault for bad presentations does not lie with the presentation software. The master of presenting data and information, Edward Tufte, has erudite thoughts on the matter. “Powerpoint is like being trapped inside the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20],"tags":[265,268],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-p-cubed","category-story","tag-p-cubed","tag-story"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Caught up within a single style of visual presentation." - p cubed presentations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Caught up within a single style of visual presentation." - p cubed presentations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The previous post alluded to the fact that the fault for bad presentations does not lie with the presentation software. The master of presenting data and information, Edward Tufte, has erudite thoughts on the matter. “Powerpoint is like being trapped inside the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"p cubed presentations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-KbZGKrsXN-0\/UatLw0fKy0I\/AAAAAAAAAPw\/Hi8UKrwMuzc\/s1600\/flatland.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ffolliet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ffolliet\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"headline\":\"“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":191,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/flatland.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"p cubed\",\"story\"],\"articleSection\":[\"p cubed\",\"story\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.\\\" - p cubed presentations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/flatland.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/flatland.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/06\\\/flatland.jpg\",\"width\":203,\"height\":188},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/\",\"name\":\"p cubed presentations\",\"description\":\"every great presentation is the product of its message (p1), the supportive media (p2) and the delivery of that (p3).\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\",\"name\":\"ffolliet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"ffolliet\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\"},\"description\":\"At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ffolliet\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/author\\\/ffolli5_wp\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.\" - p cubed presentations","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.\" - p cubed presentations","og_description":"The previous post alluded to the fact that the fault for bad presentations does not lie with the presentation software. The master of presenting data and information, Edward Tufte, has erudite thoughts on the matter. “Powerpoint is like being trapped inside the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools […]","og_url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/","og_site_name":"p cubed presentations","article_published_time":"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-KbZGKrsXN-0\/UatLw0fKy0I\/AAAAAAAAAPw\/Hi8UKrwMuzc\/s1600\/flatland.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"ffolliet","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ffolliet","twitter_site":"@ffolliet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ffolliet","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/"},"author":{"name":"ffolliet","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"headline":"“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”","datePublished":"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/"},"wordCount":191,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/flatland.jpg","keywords":["p cubed","story"],"articleSection":["p cubed","story"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/","name":"\"Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.\" - p cubed presentations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/flatland.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-02T14:13:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T11:15:41+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/flatland.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/flatland.jpg","width":203,"height":188},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/caught-up-within-a-single-style-of-visual-presentation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/","name":"p cubed presentations","description":"every great presentation is the product of its message (p1), the supportive media (p2) and the delivery of that (p3).","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56","name":"ffolliet","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"ffolliet"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp"},"description":"At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.","sameAs":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging","https:\/\/x.com\/ffolliet"],"url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/author\/ffolli5_wp\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}