Subtlety is more than attention to detail. Attention to detail is looking beyond the spell-check engine's declaration that 'where' and 'wear' or 'their' and 'there' are all spelled correctly, in spite of the fact only two of them are correct for any given situation. Subtlety is font choice, leading, page size and image tone. In the case of a presentation, subtlety includes slide builds, transitions, text sizing and line length.

A client of mine recently hired me to produce a “PowerPoint” for them. Up front, I told them I used Keynote on the Mac, and—as non-Mac-zealot-ly as I could—explained why. I started with a two-way show-and-tell.

I had my client to show me one of their existing presentations. Next, I asked them what they liked and what they disliked about their current presentation. Their list of what make them uncomfortable was visibly longer than their list of likes.

Then I showed them one of my Keynote presentations. Again, I asked them for their likes and dislikes. What made my Keynote presentation visibly richer and inspire greater confidence in the topic, PowerPoint could not accomplish. To produce the visual effects for this one presentation with software available on Windows would have probably cost them more than they spent on a MacBook Pro 13″. This one-time purchase of the proper tool continued to accrue additional cost savings over the next three presentations I built for them.

Think of giving a presentation as rushing into battle. You only have one chance to succeed. Failure in a presentation ensures everyone sitting in front of you may never look at you again. Rushing into battle with anything less than the best tools does not provide as strong of return on investment as having the best tools available. Notice I said nothing about "industry-standard" or "most-compatible". In all honesty, I don't want anyone else in my industry to read this blog... I don't want them to have as strong of presence as I have! For me and my clients, the Mac is a small price for distinction and differentiation.

I’ve created quite a number of Keynote presentations for myself and others… and every one of them utilizes elements that PowerPoint simply does not have. If I wanted to be hampered by PowerPoint’s feature-set, I’d use PowerPoint. Keynote’s ability to effectively animate objects–and I’m not talking about standard text animations–places my presentations head and shoulders above what everyone using PowerPoint can do. Most everything I create in Keynote is subtle and refined. Quartz renders text and images gorgeously.

My presentations, like many of my clients’, are on visual topics. The animations and transitions I use do not distract from the verbal portion of the presentation. The effects I utilize are there to reinforce the verbal component. I personally find the blocky transitions, shoddy typography and kitchy animations in PowerPoint to be highly distracting and uncomfortable.

Think back to your first date with someone you really thought was a keeper. You only had one chance to make that good first impression. You pulled out all the stops... fresh change of clothes, washed car, nice restaurant. You entered battle prepared to win.

Presentation. Book. Trade show banner. Website. Small subtleties sometimes make the difference between getting the sale and going home alone.