A survey by the presentation software business SlideRocket highlights some unsurprising research about PowerPoint.

In their survey of more than 1,000 workers, over 30 percent of respondents reported falling asleep during a PowerPoint presentation. We presume that these are audience members falling asleep, not the presenters.

This figure might seem extreme until you start to think of your experience of sitting in a conference room, listening to the speakers.

Now it’s fashionable to knock PowerPoint but is it the PowerPoint presentation that induces the state of “death by PowerPoint”? Or is it the speaker, the length of the presentation or the rapid-fire sequence of presentations at most conferences?

We’ve highlighted the occasions when the Vice-President of the United States falls asleep during his boss’s speech. Nothing to do with PowerPoint. And we’ve also noted how members of the President’s audience have nodded off during his speeches. That’s not a PowerPoint problem. It’s the speaker’s problem.

The SlideRocket survey found that the most frustrating features of PowerPoint include excessive text on slides, boring graphics, lack of analytics, and large file size. That’s undeniably true, but it’s not PowerPoint software that’s behind the problem. It’s the presenter or their lack of presentation experience.

Amusingly the survey notes how a good proportion of the respondents (33 percent) actually dread having to build a PowerPoint slide deck. That’s more than the 29 percent who dread sitting through a PowerPoint presentation itself.

It’s probably the simplicity of crating a presentation using SlideRocket that’s most important as SlideRocket does provide the professional tools needed to create some stunning presentations. But note that pretty SlideRocket slides alone aren’t going to do the trick.

But if temptation gets the better of you and you’d like to give the software a work-out then you can sign up for a free trial of the presentation software.