SmartDraw.com, the business graphics software vendor, offers 14 free e-mail courses on subjects such as using PowerPoint and choosing the right visuals.

It's not really Microsoft's fault. PowerPoint gives you all kinds of templates and graphics tools, but all anyone ever uses is boring bullet points on a white background.

The text should only be there to supplement the graphic content.” As an example, she highlights the conference posters made by Nicholas Wu, a biologist at the University of Queensland, in Australia.

That's the motto of Luis Urrutia, a graphic designer living in Figtree, whose love for the digital slide deck has seen him team up with companies such as Microsoft and launched a side business ...