slide presentations -the rules

I've been meaning to write up my principels for presntations using software and data projectors. Since I use OO.o I can't bring myself to mention a certain power tool from M$ -what would be the point?
But Andrew Jones has saved me the trouble by blogging thusly:
"- i used only a few colors - a medium grey against white for the text was more subtle and seemed to work better than a shouting glaring black on white or, even worse, a tropical cheesy ecclesiastical PURPLE to match the church banners and flags (God forbid!)
- i never used bullets. I pretended they never existed.
- I changed the font from New Times to Helvetica
- i never used transitions, although i would have used a fade in/out if i had to.
- i placed a looping QT movie next to my text. Quicktime Pro is the program of choice. I downloaded some old footage of ant colonies and emergent cells, and exported it to a 320 x 240 QT using Photo-Jpeg compression of only 12 frames. That kept it really small. Of course the movies were primed to run and loop automatically so i didnt have to play with the presentation or push more buttons like a geeky scientist. I could also ignore the movies if i wanted to, since they were not synched chronologically with anything i was saying.
- my projected text was never the propositional point - no reason to parrot i am saying - it is soooo redundant!
- my text was either the title (first slide) or a bible verse that supported what i was saying. i would rather have people meditate on the source material (Proverbs in my case) than my processed thought drawn from the source. Another advantage of this is that i could change what i want to say on the spot without having to change the presentation.
- my text was written creatively - use of size and colors and placement to generate alternate shades of meaning.
- if i had more time, i could have saved the whole presentation as a QT movie for the CD [good feature]
- if i really wanted to show off, which i didnt, i could have used my bluetooth sony ericsson phone as a remote control with a cheap program i bought called Clicker."

I have a few variables and additional comments. I've tended to use pale yellow text on a black background using a deeper yellow to embolden text [liturgy -the bits we all say together for example]. However, this is only really advisable for dark viewing conditions [which is where most of my presentations have been for. I nearly always use a sans serif font [usually Arial, in my case] -it just looks nicer and I'm convinced it's easier to read [regardless of what the typographers say though not all]. I only use transitions occasionally when they seem to enhance the slide and then the preference is for fade: those jumping in and sliding way things are truly horrid most of the time. I'm less technical and have tended to use animated gif's for moving interest. I agree with the idea that simply repeating in the text what you are saying is too redundant for words. What I tend to do is use the slide text to guide us through the time together, they act like headings -in fact, usually, they cue up my next strophe since I tend not to work from detailed notes this helps me stick with the planned flow. Alternatively I throw in other material which supports or acts as a tease for what I'm saying or even sometimes interrogates or contradicts it! The point is to get several layers of communicationgoing and more than one message and learning style involved.

I loved too the Wired article on artists and powerpoint [darn, I wrote that word!]
TallSkinnyKiwi: The Skinny on Powerpoint: