Powerpoint

Powerpoint has been a tool used by students for school and work presentations since it was introduced. I don't think I can even count the times that I've sat up trying to get my slides to transition from left to right, instead of right to left. Lemme tell you, it's pretty frustrating.

Obviously the most generic piece of advice I can give my classmates is to be simple with their slides. All to often students try to get very complicated and fancy with their powerpoint presentations and they just get boring instead of get better. (Or I just get more frustrated that they know how to make their powerpoint do cool things and I don't)...

I find things like loud sounds and crazy, headache-inducing transitions to be very distracting and takes away from the point of the presentation.

There are also 5 things I consider to be very important in a powerpoint...
1. Don't just have a powerpoint, print out some written documentation for people who may have missed the presentation.
2. Limit animation
3. Make the template for each slide consistent, if it's not, I find myself trying to figure out which theme will be next instead of paying attention to the actual presentation. (I think thats called ADD, but I'm not sure...)
4. Don't include too much data on the on-screen charts like pie-charts and barcharts.
5. Use the right colors! Color can increase interest and improve comprehension.