What could be better than the gift that keeps on giving: Productivity!

One of my secret weapons: 720 FREE PowerPoint templates, images, and backgrounds here: [powerbacks.com]

Oh, and Happy Holidays, all my fellow corporate flunkies. :)

@speedwell: Sorry man, those are garbage. You don't actually use those for work, do you?

i prefer to give my coworkers my ass directly from the copier and a little sprinkle of tinkle for the cubicle.

These constitute "professional" backdrops? I could knock out at least 15 of those in less than an hour. The "fog" one is especially amazing, as it's just Photoshop Clouds with a bit of a blur.

@JKinNYC: Duh, he gives them to his competition, they use it, get laughed at.
He has a good one from Microsoft at the price of $199 and he gets a promotion!

@speedwell: Do you really use these for work??? As a graphic designer I'm ashamed by anyone that uses these, they are AWFUL!

I'm ashamed by almost anyone who uses PowerPoint myself...

Tip for the average speaker in a business meeting:
Nobody is really listening to you; your hour long speech could have been replaced with a 30 second email and a link to the relevant information.

There are a few OK ones. As a graphic designer myself (now a trainer for IT), I do understand the precarious compromise between productivity and quality. I support engineers who actually don't give a damn about PowerPoint quality, just about product quality. If it's official company work meant for distribution, I use the template Marketing designed for the purpose. If it's internal crap meant to hold the attention of adult children with bright colors and pretty pictures, then I take the free stuff into Photoshop and fix it lightly. Really, you did not think I mainlined that dreck... did you?

I have a funny PowerPoint story actually. I used to get (at my personal online account) lots of e-mail meant for some government flunky in the UK. No telling why they were using a free online account, but that's government work for you. Anyway, I kept sending it back with an apologetic, "I think you have the wrong person." Nothing worked until the day I got a set of PowerPoint presentations that would have made Gutenberg do the hokey-pokey in his grave. I had nothing better to do that afternoon, so I straightened out all the fonts and line spacing, corrected all the grammar and spelling (and yes, I do know how to edit by Brit rules), attached the repaired documents to my reply, and hit Reply All. Never heard from them again, lol....

@speedwell: you should have included your CV! :)

my degree is graphic design but i work as a QA engineer, its a long story. those are pretty sad slides...

@speedwell: Those templates are the reason people hate Powerpoint.

People that use templates like that still have a personal website with background midi and animated "under construction" gif files.