I like most of your points and will share them with our communications people. I disagree with your third point, however.

First, some agreement: stock art pictures of compasses and globes seldom serve any useful purpose and should be avoided.

But it's really, really poor advice to tell people that "the key difference [between pictures and graphics] is that graphics add value, pictures don't." Spoken like a true IT guy, design myopia and all.

(And by the way, I have to nitpick your mistaken, though not uncommon, distinction between pictures and graphics. Pictures are a kind of graphic; they most certainly are not somehow in a different category. That's just a matter of the standard definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics )

So ... "Remove the pictures." Really?? Pictures that advance or support your story can be the most valuable component of a slide show. To use your "Hollywood" analogy, a movie without pictures ... FWT?

Example: If you're developing a PowerPoint about the redevelopment of a neighborhood, cut 90% of the words on the screen, and add a series of pictures, full-screen, with very succinct captions if you must, and let the speaker use the slides as a backdrop to support the key points in a conversational presentation about the redevelopment. Maybe fade them into each other or something.

That'll give you a much more Hollywood-esque story effect than a word- and chart-heavy presentation. I would liken it to any Ken Burns documentary. Great narrative, HUGE on pictures, words on screen only as necessary to frame the story.

Naturally, many topics gain great value from well-designed informational graphics. Make them simple to comprehend, then use them, by all means.

It would be better to reframe your advice as: "Does the graphic (whether picture, chart, graph or whatever) help clarify the speaker's story? Does it support or detract from the storyline?" If it distracts the audience or causes them to lose focus on the speaker's storyline, then cut it.

I'd rather see a presentation with 80 picture slides (if they serve as a backdrop for the story) and 8 text slides, than 16 total slides full of charts and graphs (if they don't clarify the story).