Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful tool for conveying ideas to a large audience. You can find many PowerPoint training courses that will show you a wide array of special features you can add to your presentations, including music and animation - but that is not necessarily a good thing.

The best PowerPoint training courses try to explain not just the "how" but the "why", and more importantly the "why not". All of the features of PowerPoint have their place, but that place may not be in your current presentation.

It's about the message not the medium

The goal of your presentation is to convey a message. It doesn't matter how long you spent on the document, how accurate your figures are, or how many animated dancing puppies are on each slide. If your audience walks out without receiving your message, your presentation has failed.

Good PowerPoint training courses help you focus on the message. PowerPoint training classes should show you methods that can emphasize key points in your presentation to drive your message home and how to avoid techniques that are distracting or confusing.

Less is more

Early in PowerPoint training courses you learn how to make the basic, boring slide: large, black text on a white background. It is stark, simple, and yet effective.

Colour can be distracting. If the font and background colours don't contrast sufficiently, your slides are going to be hard to read. If certain text is coloured differently than others, it can cause your viewers to dismiss the uncoloured text completely.

Clip art or background images can also distract your audience away from the facts being presented. Animation is an even bigger problem. Music can help set the mood you are trying to establish, but can also be a jarring counterpoint if not carefully selected.

Used sparingly, special techniques are very powerful

This doesn't mean you can't use the skills you take away from PowerPoint training courses. You just need to be sure you are using them appropriately.

Colour can draw your audience's attention to particular information, which is sometimes exactly what you want to do. PowerPoint training courses show you how to draw their attention to important aspects of the information presented.

Images are also a powerful technique you learn in PowerPoint training courses. A graph is more effective than columns of numbers. A presentation on a company's expansion can be supplemented with a few photographs of the new construction. An image can provide a background during a period in the presentation where the speaker is telling a story rather than presenting statistics.

Pick up useful new techniques

PowerPoint training courses give you access to tools that let you bring your presentations to a new level. If used with some restraint, these tools allow you to make your presentations more informative and more persuasive.