May 24th, 2011

Microspeak: PowerPoint Karaoke and the eye chart

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The game PowerPoint-Karaoke was invented in 2006 by Zentrale Ingelligenz Agentur. In this game, contestants are called upon to give a PowerPoint presentation based on a slide deck they have never seen. (The German spelling uses a hyphen between the two words. When “translated” into English, the hyphen is often omitted.) At Microsoft, the term has been extended to refer to giving a presentation from slides prepared by somebody else, usually on short notice and therefore with little preparation.

Bob is out sick today, so I’ll be giving the overview. Sorry for the PowerPoint Karaoke.

This is shorthand for “Sorry if this presentation is a bit clumsy, but I’m stepping in on short notice, and I’m not completely familiar with this slide deck.” In the context of PowerPoint presentations, an eye chart is a slide so dense with text that reading it is a test of visual acuity. The term is usually used as part of an apology for having created such a horrible slide in the first place. More generally, the term eye chart refers to any presentation of data in a ridiculously small font. For example, over in the sales/marketing part of Microsoft, there are spreadsheets with titles like FY05 Sales Forecast Eye Chart. Here’s what one of them might look like:

Region Jul 2005   Aug 2005   Sep 2005   Q1   Oct 2005   Nov 2005   Dec 2005   Q2 …
FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y FY05 Fcst FY04 Y-Y
Northeast Widgets 57 57 0% 74 61 22% 85 92 −8% 216 209 3% 71 70 2% 53 59 −11% 90 89 1% 215 218 −2%
Doodads 41 52 −22% 79 81 −3% 100 85 18% 219 218 1% 49 52 −7% 93 84 12% 87 79 10% 229 214 7%
Gizmos 64 55 16% 95 88 7% 56 67 −16% 215 211 2% 59 79 −25% 58 69 −16% 68 83 −18% 186 231 −20%
Northeast Total 159 157 2% 138 168 −18% 170 212 −20% 467 537 −13% 205 224 −8% 209 177 18% 194 244 −21% 608 645 −6%
Southeast Widgets 80 70 15% 75 82 -8% 57 60 -5% 212 212 0% 63 83 -24% 49 53 -8% 92 75 23% 204 211 -3%
Doodads 59 69 -14% 60 73 -17% 67 68 -1% 187 210 -11% 54 70 -23% 98 86 14% 58 50 16% 210 206 2%
Gizmos 75 89 -15% 59 61 -3% 124 100 24% 259 250 3% 80 89 -10% 84 96 -13% 40 52 -23% 204 237 -14%
Southeast Total 204 239 -15% 220 189 17% 151 187 -19% 576 615 -6% 172 175 -2% 168 210 -20% 122 152 -20% 462 538 -14%
… etc for about a bajillion more rows …

(The abbreviation Y-Y is being used correctly for once. Writing the program to generate all this fake data took far, far longer than writing the rest of this posting! It got a lot easier once I realized that, since this is just fake data, the totals don’t have to add up.) Giving the spreadsheet the title Eye Chart lets people know that this is the spreadsheet crammed with data to the point of information overload. If that’s what you’re looking for. I wouldn’t be surprised if these uses of the terms PowerPoint Karaoke and eye chart are also popular at other companies.

Bonus chatter: Last year, I was asked to give a repeat of a presentation I hadn’t given in several months. I had only a little bit of time to prepare, and there were times where I lost my place and had to refer to my notes (which I thankfully remembered to keep). It’s embarrassing to find yourself playing PowerPoint Karaoke to your own slide deck.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
MicrospeakNon-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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