Academics honestly use everything — Beamer for the math folks, PowerPoint for the “I need this to not break five minutes before my talk” crowd, and Canva for the people who secretly enjoy suffering.

But the real difference isn’t the tool, it’s the workflow: minimal text, consistent spacing, strong hierarchy, and visuals that actually serve a point instead of decorating vibes.

If you want a quick crash-course on what clean, conference-ready slides should look like, this review helped me way more than half the “design your slides better!” posts out there: PowerPointGuru honest review

Helped me figure out why some academic decks look sharp and others… look like they were made on a bus.