Hmm. Powerpoint, eh? No, can't say I have much to offer there...

But seals! Ah, the seals. Jeff and Marie took me down to the pier to see them when I visited San Francisco. They're big and smell incredibly bad. But their life is spent lounging in the sun, easting fish and, presumably, having an occasional session of seal sex (I'm not really sure what seal sex would look like, so I'm not sure if I witnessed any). All in all, a lifestyle I could get used to.

I completely agree about Powerpoint. I made it a goal of college to get out without using it. I made it to April of my senior year, when a partner in a Token Liberal Arts Class insisted on it for our semester presentation. So bitter. So, so bitter.
Alternatively, my actual take is that it's basically the difference between web design and IT. Completely different skills, one for fluffy marketing types and one for engineers.

I can't agree more!! And so does Edward Tufte...checkout his essay.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint

You may know me as a wannabe rocker by night, but by day I'm basically a PowerPoint jockey. The only off-the-cuff advice I think is valuable is this: Decide whether your slides need to be able to "travel without you" or not. That is, if the slides get copied for somebody not at the conference, will that person have any idea what the presentation was about? If so, then design that way - the story should be in the slides for all to see. If not (my preferred mode), then you need to think about the slides as "showing" things to complement the "telling" of the presenter. (It also helps if the presenter is an engaging public speaker...)

And by the way, Tufte is a pompous ass. I paid good money (well, student-discounted good money) to go to one of his seminars once. While his books are interesting, his "bold" stand against AutoContent Wizards everywhere is not exactly inspiring. AutoContent is a soul-sucking and inane way to go through life - not just for making presentations, but for making music, writing blogs, giving Valentine's gifts, et cetera. I mean, who on Earth EXPECTS something called "AutoContent" to be a useful mechanism for conveying something important? If a colleague of mine ever tried using it, I'd have him fired on the spot. So kudos, Edward Tufte, for revealing the Inner Stalinism of the Lazy and the Uninspired. (Sorry, that was a rant just looking for a home. Maybe I should get my own blog.)

Create pretty diagrams in visio or other graphic tools you're comfortable with, and then copy paste into your slide presentation. Viola! You have a pretty presentation and San Fransisco will be sunny for your managers. Just try to please the eye visually, make sure everything is spelled right and you will be fine.

The help function rocks!

Hey you can't go on the trip, but go party your a** off this weekend...and maybe you'll forget about it.

i have a black belt in powerpoint from my previous life. i'd be happy to answer any specific questions you have! it's the least i can do after your helpful advice on honeymoons in italy...

heh, thanks, david. okay, one question - how do i incorporate music? (this is going to be FANCY!)

wow -- there's a good one! never come across that before. the best advice i can come up with is to follow the directions that i found in my version of powerpoint (office xp professional) when i typed "music" into the help box at the top right of the screen. if you want sound effects, you can add specific files. if you want songs to play during the presentation, there are pretty detailed instructions for that as well. just choose the "play a cd during a presentation" option that pops up after you search in help and follow the steps. it looks like you can play multiple songs, one song, or even clips of a song. the only downside is that i think you need to have the cd in the machine during the presentation, so you might have to burn a mixed cd of all your songs.

hope that's a little helpful!

thanks! i'll give it a shot. i'm just dying to set the powerpoint presentation to some radiohead.

"fitter... happier... more productive..."

Catherine, I can totally hook up music in a PowerPoint presentation, but it'd be easier for me to walk you through it than explain. Also, I have like 20 books on PP here at work.

I'm pretty sure the music thing can be done via the "Insert" menu... you insert an "Object", and then that object is some kind of music file.

Of course, my very strong recommendation would be NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, to try and include music. It's one of those things that seems like a good idea now, but will almost definitely backfire (e.g. sound card on the presentation computer? connection to room speakers? software for playing music?)...

20 books?? god good, who knew pp was such a racket? i think i'll go the simplified route and just the same template for every page. no music. too complicated for my pp-challenged brain.

hey, does anyone know where I can get this one song I like... I want a website that I dont have to download any bull just for this one song and I can get it for free . i want it to play during my powerpoint presentation