PowerPoint sort of gets a bad rap. It mostly deserves it, because its interface encourages exactly the worst sort of usage, but it can be used well. It's just

PowerPoint sort of gets a bad rap. It mostly deserves it, because its interface encourages exactly the worst sort of usage, but it can be used well. It's just that this is rare. The second best PowerPoint tip I've ever heard was "Don't use PowerPoint." The best was to get the rest of the presentation ready, and do the PowerPoint deck last. This forces you to actually make a decent presentation, and use PowerPoint as an aid, as opposed to making a good slide deck and fitting the presentation to it. The problem is exactly the same as in programming or, really, everything else: people focus too much on the tools, and not enough on the task.