Creating visual aids that really work: Designing effective slides using PowerPoint

Used wisely, PowerPoint® and similar programs can be an effective tool to help audiences remember your message, while allowing you to prove, reinforce, and support your claims.

Used unwisely, PowerPoint becomes a distraction that upstages the presenter and buries the message. With its tumbling, whooshing, flying, singing and screeching graphics, PowerPoint can take on a life of its own.

All these bells and whistles can disconnect the slides from the presenter and destroy the reason for using them in the first place–to provide an audience with at-a-glance comprehension to support the presentation.
PowerPoint can represent essential data to support points in a way that boosts clarity, credibility, and retention. PowerPoint incorporates a wide variety of tools for selecting colors, fonts, formats and styles.
You can import content from word processing programs or charts from spreadsheet applications.

PowerPoint also lets you create your own graphics and tailor the data to meet your own special needs.

PowerPoint has a range and flexibility that allow you to quickly pull together some great visuals or to invest hours simmering a cauldron of confusion stew. The key is to know how to use it wisely. => http://bit.ly/nNv8as