I disagree. The problem with PowerPoint templates is that everyone has them. When you see a PowerPoint presentation your first thought is, "this is a PowerPoint presentation -- I know that template".
With that said, I think PowerPoint is actually really good. And most presentations surprisingly good. In fact, I tend to think people tend to do a better job with their PowerPoint presentations than they do the actual paper that goes with it. The spend more effort distilling their thoughts down to what really matters, rather than endless exposition.
I just think its become trendy to hate on PowerPoint.
I've got Office 2011 for the Mac and Office 2010 for Windows. One of the first things I did was go and look to see if they'd improved the templates and they simply aren't very good.
I agree that people get bored of seeing the same ones over and over but that's part of the same problem - with so few good choices people all migrate around the small number of least bad options.
As for it being trendy to hate on PowerPoint, I don't know who you hang out with but talking about any presentation software in any terms isn't trendy among people I see... I get that certain views become fashionable but I don't think PowerPoint is the sort of thing that people round on in that way, it's a bit to "meh" to generate a bandwagon.
I agree that people get bored of seeing the same ones over and over but that's part of the same problem - with so few good choices people all migrate around the small number of least bad options.
I don't think that's the issue. Most people use the themes availabe in the design tab. That's it. I've shown people how there are more than a thousand templates available from the file menu and almost everybody says, "Oh, I didn't know about those!".
Maybe it's just me but I've reviewed a couple of hundred and saw nothing I'd want to use in preference to the ones people always use.
In any case, even if it's true that they're hidden away so people find them whose fault is that?
The whole reason MS changed the UI to include the ribbon was that every time they asked people about new features they should include they were given ideas for things Office already did so the idea was to make things easier to find. Maybe it's time they did something for templates.
With that said, I think PowerPoint is actually really good. And most presentations surprisingly good. In fact, I tend to think people tend to do a better job with their PowerPoint presentations than they do the actual paper that goes with it. The spend more effort distilling their thoughts down to what really matters, rather than endless exposition.
I just think its become trendy to hate on PowerPoint.