Working with Powerpoint "Smart Art"
Smart Art is a nice tool when working with presentations. There is nothing worse than overloading a powerpoint slide with information that nobody wants to read. Not because the information are useless but the presenter is when the audience is already informed by one single slide. Any kind of media in a presentation is just for stimulating the audience attention and to give them more than just blanc information, which they will forget as soon as they exit the room. Any kind of media is a companion when you use it right for your intentions but will never stand for its own.
Working with SmartArt is very easy. If you have never done it before, use the screencast on my page and just follow the instructions. With SmartArt you can produce a slide of information for which you normally have to overload your slide. Take a look at the examples and you will understand what I mean. No matter if you have information in some kind of relation, if you have data or something that stands in contrast to each to other, you will find enough layouts for your purposes.