Use the 6 by 6 rule: keep your slides to a maximum of 6 words per line, and 6 lines per slide.
Budget about 30 seconds per slide, and then talk about the things that your slides outline; don't just read what's on the slide.
You can add notes to the slides that don't show up in the presentation but I prefer to use a piece of paper as it lets you walk around.
I usually know what I need in a document, I just want to spend less time putting it together.
To edit text files quickly I learnt vim commands, I'd like to find something similar to take the sting out of working with PP. Keyboard driven workflows, advanced features etc.
Right now I am doing a lot of clicking, a lot of inserting textboxes, changing text formats and dragging things around on slides. I would like to type and hit a few shortcuts as I go to arrange things.
I appreciate people suggesting rules for numbers of slides and tips for preparing to speak but that isn't what the problem is.
I guess it didn't occur to me that a HN user wouldn't know how to use powerpoint.
When you prepare slides several times a year you can get by with the usual method, when it's weekly I would rather spend a couple of hours upfront learning the software inside out. I thought this would be apparent to HN users from the OP.
The most boring presentations are the ones where they spend like 10 minutes a slide.