@buckle, Eric & Shade: I’m learning the beauty that is Keynote. Unfortunately, our faculty (as with most, it seems) is still tied to Microsoft computers and software. Perhaps OpenOffice will one day offer a viable alternative. Flash isn’t a viable alternative at all for standard faculty types who aren’t sure how to resize images, let alone write Actionscript. If we had a department dedicated to creative design, perhaps I would sing a different tune.

@ Holger: Good point, I agree, although the two elements are intertwined. For instance, in the third example, I see the “slickness” in combining the photo and text elements, and “readability” in changing the bullet list orientation from vertical to horizontal.

Thanks again for all your comments - keep letting me know what you think!

2. slickness
1. readability

Powerpoint slides tend not to be slick unless extra effort is done to achieve it.
Your first slide is, however, slick (the black-white).

Your other slides emphasize the ease of reading. Perhaps we need to distinguish between the
two elements.