I understand this essay as a companion of Reynolds' "Presentation Zen" and viceversa, although Tufte's writing is not so zen.
The first part states the uselessness of slideware tools (the author explicitly refers to MS PowerPoint) for reports: well, it is rather obvious since slideware is not meant for.
Unfortunaly, a very large number of presenters kill their audiences by PP, by slides filled up with multilevel bullets, products firstly sold for presentations, then as handouts.
(Let's avoid the issue related to loudly reading all words on a slide!)
The real-life example is the report about the January 2003 spaceflight of shuttle Columbia, that burned up during re-entry.
Tufte's arguments are hard and could be shared, at least to a certain extent: do not use slideware for reporting, do not bug your listeners with bullet points, be sure to have someting to say.
"Serious problems require a serious tool: written reports", "... projected images and videos are necessary" (page 14), but, please, do not forget the key role of the presenter, who must "be fully present at that moment in time. A good presenter is fully committed to the moment, committed to being there with the audience at that particolar place and time." (Garr Reynolds)
Consider your audience as composed by meeters, not by a bunch of listeners.
The second part is dedicated to presentations design, particularly it deprecates slideware templates and wizards.
"To make smarter presentations, try smarter tools." (page 28), but a word-processing tool is not the ultimate solution: you have to find your way through.
If you have something to say.
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