Whether it’s the office standard or you’ve simply used it forever, Microsoft’s PowerPoint ( ; $400 as part of Office 2008) is a terrific tool for presenting your thoughts and ideas to colleagues.

Unless you’re presenting a cure for insomnia, you want your PowerPoint slides to engage your audience without distracting them from the presenter (you). Too much text invites people to read rather ...

PowerPoint has a great set of special effects, graphics, animations, and template themes. There’s just one problem: Everybody else has the same effects, animations, and template themes that you have.