[pm3003]

Same experience here. On PowerPoint, when there is repetitive work (weey presentation etc) i try to get a correct template, but most of the time I spend too much time on it, it's just a pain, and the corporate templates are horrible.

Everytime I can go away with a very simple presentation I do it, but for some reason we are partly judged on powerpoint appearance. I once did an animated background for a presentation as a joke, and was praised by everyone for it instead of my team being blamed for doing useless things on work time.

And I don't really see an alternative. It's more of a cultural issue.

I have a hard time using word, and corporate templates used to be good and complete but aren't anymore. Fortunately we usually have competent secretaries who do the formatting and some editing work.

For less official work I use markdown or latex most of the time.