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The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Houston, TX 77030
I much appreciated Dr. Daffner's recent opinion [1] on using PowerPoint (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) for academic presentations. He makes many good points, and I certainly agree that the simpler a presentation is, and the less cluttered with color and unnecessary flying objects, the better. However, Daffner omitted the pen function, which is available in all versions of PowerPoint. This is a powerful tool for annotating during PowerPoint presentations. When the program is in the presentation mode, either Control + P or a right click and Pointer Options will reveal the functions of the pen. The help function associated with a right click will also show pen options. The pen is a useful tool to annotate even the smallest anatomic structures. The color can be chosen by the user (I like magenta); and by dragging while holding the left mouse button down, one can write with the pen and highlight any feature. Pushing the "e" button erases whatever was highlighted. Obviously, this function is available only to a speaker who has access to a mouse. Some speaker podiums have only an advance button, but when one has control of the mouse the pen is much more useful than a simple mouse arrow. Anyone using PowerPoint to give academic presentations—or presentations of any type—will love the pen function.
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Allegheny General Hospital Pittsburgh, PA 15212
I thank Dr. Ginsberg for his comments and observation on the omission of the pen function for PowerPoint (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) in my article. As a reader and frequent reviewer of articles for AJR and other journals, I am well aware that simply publishing on a subject does not make one an expert on that subject. I, like many colleagues of my generation, learned the rudiments of PowerPoint and image processing with Photoshop (Adobe Systems, Mountain View, CA) from my residents. Although I became adept at navigating through several versions of PowerPoint, I had never seen the pen function in use, nor was I aware of it. Apparently, neither were the residents who taught me. Furthermore, I have not seen it used in any of the meetings that I have attended.
Now, thanks to Ginsberg, I have begun using the pen function, starting with a conference given this morning. I agree with him that it is a useful tool for emphasizing parts of the slide. I have one caveat, however. This function can be overused, like many of the other tools mentioned in my article [1]. Had I been aware of the pen function, I would have included that caveat in the article.
The late Ben Felson was reputed to have defined an expert as "someone who is afraid of anything new, because then he wouldn't be an expert." Computers, PowerPoint, and image processing are all new skills that must be learned by many of us "old dogs" [2]. Yes, I subscribe to the philosophy that it is possible for old dogs to learn new tricks. Sometimes it is necessary, however, to turn to the young pups to teach us.
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