Kathy Sierra has written a very strong post against the use of PowerPoint and even transparencies for her presentations. To quote her:
Sometimes the best presentation is… no presentation. Ditch the slides completely. Put the projector in the closet, roll the screen back up, and turn the damn lights back on!
Even though you may not want to stop using PowerPoint because it’s not obvious how to use it right, you definitely want to read her post and learn how not to commit the mistakes she mentioned. Some of them are definitely avoidable with practice, such as talking to the slides and dimming the lights, both of which are likely to turn your talk into a unidirectional broadcast.
Among the comments, I discovered this interesting wiki about WhyWeDoNotUsePowerPoint. Heh.
