A well organized slideshow allows a presenter to lend visual images to an oral presentation. The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" holds true, in that a single image can save a presenter from speaking a paragraph of descriptive details. As with any public speaking or lecturing, a certain amount of talent, experience, and rehearsal is required to make a successful slideshow presentation.

Presentation software is most commonly used for instructional purposes, usually with the intention of creating a dynamic, audiovisual presentation. The relevant points to the entire presentation are put on slides, and accompany a spoken monologue.

Slideshows have artistic uses as well, such as being used as a screensaver, or to provide dynamic imagery for a museum presentation, for example, or in installation art. David Byrne, among others, has created PowerPoint art.

Slideshow in art

Since the late 1960's visual artists in museums and galleries have used slide shows as a device, either for presenting specific information about an action or research or as a phenomenological form in itself. According to the introduction of 1 -an exhibition organized at the Baltimore Museum of Art- “Through the simple technology of the slide projector and 35 mm color transparency, artists discovered a tool that enabled the transformation of space through the magnification of projected pictures, texts, and images”. Although some have not necessarily used 35mm or color slides, and some have even exchanged images for texts (Robert Barry) the color slides are the most commonly used and they could be sometimes accompanied with written text, either on the slides or as an intertitle. Some artists have also used a voice-over on the slide presentation (James Coleman, Robert Smithson). Slideshows have since also used by artist that use other mediums as painting and sculpture to present their work publicly. During the last few years there is a growing usage of the concept by a younger generation of artists. Non-profit organization Slideluck Potshow holds slideshow events globally featuring works by amateur and professional artists, photographers, and gallerists. Participants in the event bring food, potluck-style, to have a social dinner before the slideshow begins.

Some of the known artists that have used slideshows in their work are: Bas Jan Ader, Francis Alys, Robert Barry, James Coleman, Jan Dibbets, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Nan Goldin, Louise Lawler, Ana Mendieta, Jonathan Monk, Dennis Oppenheim, Allan Sekula, Robert Smithson, Carey Young, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Mohammed Ali.

Digital Slideshows

It is becoming more common to see digital photo slideshows. Slideshows custom made for people using their photos, music, wedding invitations, birth announcements, or virtually any other documents that can be scanned. Some people are calling these DVDs, the new photo montage, or DVD slideshows. Slideshows can be created not only in DVD, but also in HD video format and executable file for PC as for example, in such professional slideshow software as PicturesToExe and ProShow Gold.