At Microsoft there are three kinds of powerpoint slide decks one typically finds:

• technical note style - black & white, lots of data, tables, tiny text, usually printed and reviewed as a technical note. It is not projected during the meeting. Any seriious meeting that involves technical content will use this style.
• Microsoft hot style - Can be as low-level as the technical note style but is meant for projection and is full of large text, images, and color. Can be read and understood without assistance of the presenter. This style is often used when talking partner teams or external customers.
• Steve Jobs style - Simple, elegant, beautiful sometimes, may have very little on the slide, a few big words. This deck cannot be understood outside the context of the presentation and requires the speaker to lead the audience thatrically through the presentation. A keynote by Steve Jobs is the best example. These are not so common at Microsoft.

Most of my decks are done in the "technical note style". But recently I'm preparing for a demo, so I've been playing with the more graphically-intensive styles. I'll be posting examples of my work so that you can see some of the advanced features in PowerPoint. Also, if you like the examples please feel fee to use them in your own decks.

Here are my samples from my first deck: msdn-saveenr-powerpoint-hotness-part-1-2007-06-18.pptx