Terrific book here from Garr Reynolds, to assist us all to make "better" presentations - ones that ensure the focus is on the speaker and the message, rather than on the bullet points and "noisy" slides.
Presentation Zen is my favourite blog on the art of presenting - and a recent article by Garr highlights some of the problems we can get into when using charts in presentations. He also references some comments made by Seth Godin, particularly his 3 laws of great graphs.
Powerpoint is a terrific and widely valued tool - but many of its features simply shouldn't be used. Use the subtlety of Powerpoint to help you tell your message - don't employ its technical wizardry (text flying in from all angles, 3D charts, multi-coloured backgrounds etc) such that it detracts. Just because Powerpoint can, doesn't mean we should.
