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.

Last minute shopping for the presenter or public speaker in your life does have its drawbacks.

Books and DVDs have all been done before. So what about technology or gadgets?

Technology-overload can be a real problem at Christmas. If you are giving presents, then there’s so much to choose from. Do you buy the 2GB or the 4GB version?  Will the recipient be slightly disappointed not to receive the turbo version? Who knows?

And if you are receiving presents you can be so seriously overwhelmed by the product and its packaging. You wonder–what does this do?

So, here’s an idea that you might want to try this Christmas. It’s not a plug. And it’s not a sales trip.

But the Livescribe smartpen has caught our attention. We reckon that it could be ideal for anyone preparing their speeches or presentations. It can “record” your handwriting and play it back as a digital recording. It can produce an audio-recording of a conference or a meeting…and then play it back. And, it’s a pretty good looking pen.

It could be seriously useful for anyone drafting speeches or presentations.

It comes with a bearable price tag…though you will want to explore the pricing for all the other paraphernalia, such as special paper.

For someone who still uses, upgrades and buys paraphernalia for their Filofax, I’d imagine that owning a Livescribe pen would carry the same ongoing costs.

It’s worth a try. So, Mrs Bowler…here’s something else on my Christmas list.

Leading household essentials business Kimberly-Clark announced its Q2 2010 earnings on 23rd July. Using a live webcast conference call the management team outlined their results for the Quarter.

Supporting this essential piece of investor relations was a beautifully presented PowerPoint™ presentation. It was a beautifully presented package, but its beauty stopped there–at the packaging. Because the Kimberly-Clark earnings PowerPoint™ show was essentially yet another piece of corporate presentation-ware.

They used a standard corporate template, bullet lists and bullet dashes were everywhere. Yes, there were product pictures, but they never had the prominence that they deserved. Instead it was text that had the priority. Large text, small text and even smaller text. One slide–slide 23–contained some 125 words. And nothing else.

It’s indicative of a wider corporate presentation malaise. And it will take some curing.