William Asked: great presentations are premised on great graphics, but much of what I see isn't available to us (at least for free). So, how do we get, say, pictures of needle tips?

Most people who use PowerPoint, including me, are not trained as graphic designers and so we have to figure out how to quickly and effectively choose the graphics we need to produce a presentation.  Like a collage artist or a DJ, that means we have to assemble our presentations from "found" objects, otherwise known as "sampling".  The first place I search is the Microsoft Clip Art and Media Gallery because it's free; another free site that people find useful is stock.xchng. Another that I use extensively is iStockphoto, which charges $1 for a screen-resolution photograph.

The needle is an interesting story. I wanted a really good needle because it's central to my presentations, and I was willing to invest time and resources into finding one. But  I couldn't find one that I liked, so I had it photographed, but still didn't get the quality I wanted.  So I searched the web, and located one that was close to what I wanted, then I found the photographer's name, emailed him in Germany, and purchased a license from him to use it.  Thankfully, all of the other photos and graphics that I use don't take so much time!

for clip art:

http://www.openclipart.org/