Why did Microsoft do that to PowerPoint?

"Wow!" I said.

Unfortunately, I said this over the phone while I was listening to a client talk.

"Wow what?" he said.

"Er, sorry," I said. "You were talking, and I said 'Wow' because I just opened up the Beta 2 of Microsoft PowerPoint while you were speaking. Didn't mean to interrupt. Visually, it wasn't what I was expecting. Sorry. Please continue."

"Yes," he said. "I heard that they are changing the interface considerably. Why did Microsoft do that? I was just getting comfortable with the way things were. And I imagine everyone else is, too."

Bingo, I thought. That could be one reason.

Differentiation from all the other slideware out there. Every slideware interface is starting to look the same. Microsoft wants to stay competitive. Microsoft needs its products to look different.

Last month, I had very little difficulty adapting to Open Office Impress. It looked and acted almost the same as PowerPoint.

And let's reflect on the statement, "I was just getting comfortable with the way things were."

PowerPoint is often much maligned. People are bored with PowerPoint. Microsoft might want to shake things up visually.

But these are first impressions. The initial "Wow! That's different!"

But my "Wow!" is a cursory, superficial, first-glance observation. Sort of like when a bald colleague went away for a two-week vacation and came back with a full head of hair.

I said "Wow!" then, too.

Politely, I kept "You look like a mid-life catastrophe in action" to myself.

So other than a different interface, what's the big business benefit to the new PowerPoint? What makes the new PowerPoint oh-so-much better than the old?

What lies beneath?

Is this new look for PowerPoint a mid-life crisis....or is there depth of character behind this radical face-lift?

I'll have to dig deeper. Stay tuned.... ¶ 7/04/2006 06:32:00 PM