Not being the most experienced user of powerpoint I have embarked on journey into unknown territories. Some things seem strangely familiar, and yet others are so very different from what I am used to… Take for instance the plethora of features you can add to style and actions on the page; text swirls, twirls, fades and slides – to mention just a few. As I sit here i get flashbacks to some of the first experiences with wordperfect – then it t was mindblowing that you could actually use bold or italics or even change the font size, then came word with wordart, colors and mages. Unfortunately many experiments went awry with overstyling (I’m getting to the point know…).
Styling a document with all kinds of fancy effects is not directly related to the classical rethorical understanding of ornatus, but powerpoint can be seen as part of the speaker’s actio and thus affect his delivery by being too ornated.

Well, it may be old news – but it is an important part of delivering a convincing presentation and I am proud to be aware of the pitfalls of powerpoint.