Dennis Austin, the co-creator of the famous presentation-making software PowerPoint, passed away in the United States. According to The Washington Post, he was suffering from lung cancer that metastasised to his brain.
Released by Forethought, a software company, in 1987, PowerPoint became the digital heir to overhead projectors, "transforming the labour-intensive process of creating slides", according to IANS. Months after the release, Microsoft stepped in to buy the company for $14 million. Six years later, the software was bringing in over $100 million in sales revenue for the company.
The Redmond-headquartered tech giant integrated the software in its office suite next to Microsoft Word. Austin was the primary developer of PowerPoint between 1985 to 1996 and retired thereafter.
"Our users were familiar with computers, but probably not graphics software," Austin stated in an unpublished account of the development of PowerPoint. "They were highly motivated to look their best in front of others, but they weren't savvy in graphics design," he said.
Austin's job was to make PowerPoint easy to use as Robert Gaskins conceived the software. According to the report, he used a "direct-manipulation interface," which allowed users to edit in the same space that was the final output. The aim was "to create presentations, not simply slides."
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Gaskin wrote in his book: 'Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint', "Dennis came up with at least half of the major design ideas." He was "completely responsible for the fluid performance and the polished finish of the implementation."
After 36 years since its development, the software continues to serve millions who create 30 million presentations per day on the software, the Washington Post added. Born on May 28, 1947, Austin studied engineering at the University of Virginia. He was hired by Forethought after he was laid off by a start-up company. Once Microsoft acquired the manufacturer, he continued to spearhead the development of the software till 1996.
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