Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® PowerPoint® to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Business Skills) (English and English Edition) [Paperback]

Cliff Atkinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0735627355 | ISBN-13: 978-0735627352 | Edition: Third Edition

Unlock the amazing story buried in your presentation—and forget boring, bullet-point-riddled slides forever! Guided by communications expert Cliff Atkinson, you’ll walk you through an innovative, three-step methodology for increasing the impact of your presentation. Discover how to combine classic storytelling techniques with the power of visual media to create a rich, engaging experience with your audience. Fully updated for PowerPoint 2010, and featuring compelling presentation examples from classroom to boardroom, this book will help transform your presentations—and your business impact!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Critically praised author and presentation expert Cliff Atkinson is revolutionizing the way people use Microsoft PowerPoint to communicate. He is a popular keynote speaker and consultant—teaching his innovative three-step method to Fortune 500 companies, law firms, government agencies, and business schools.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; Third Edition edition (May 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735627355
• ISBN-13: 978-0735627352
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cliff Atkinson is an acclaimed writer, popular keynote speaker, and an independent consultant to leading attorneys and Fortune 500 companies. He designed the presentations that helped persuade a jury to award a $253 million verdict to the plaintiff in the nation's first Vioxx trial in 2005, which Fortune magazine called "frighteningly powerful."

Cliff's bestselling book Beyond Bullet Points (published by Microsoft Press) was named a Best Book of 2007 by the editors of Amazon.com, and has been published in three editions and translated into a dozen languages including Chinese, Korean, and Russian. The book expands on a communications approach he has taught internationally at top law firms, government agencies, business schools and corporations, including Sony, Toyota, Del Monte, Nestlé, Nokia, Deloitte, BBDO, The NPD Group, Ipsos, Facebook, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Intel, Microsoft, GE, the American Bar Association and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal.

Cliff's work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Lasting value but degraded presentation November 17, 2011

By Mack90

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been a BBP fan since the first edition in 2005. The second edition in 2007 was a significant update and refinement. The latest, 2011 edition, is not worth buying if you already have the second edition -- the information is essentially the same but the 2011 is printed on cheap paper and the contrast between text and background for most of the illustrations is lousy, e.g. black text on a dark grey background, white text on a light grey background. I found it very difficult to read. The online version (O'Reilly Safari Books OnLine) is slightly better because it allows you to magnify the low contrast images which makes them slightly more legible. Thankfully, access to the online version is included with the ink-on-paper book free via a scratch-off, lottery ticket-type insert at the back of the book. If I had to do it again, I'd skip the paper book from Amazon and just purchase electronic access via O'Reilly. This version is more legible and you can print important pages that you might want hard copies of to highlight, mark-up, etc.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I tried to use this--but it's not for technical teaching January 18, 2012

By Prissy Lou

Format:Paperback

This book might be extremely useful to someone who is selling a product or promoting one central idea or teaching history. It just does not help for teaching technical topics at all. I teach tax--at a basic level. You cannot make everything into a story. You cannot find photos that illustrate arcane tax rules--and even when you can--like using a picture of a tractor for depreciation rules--it doesn't transmit the information like spelling it out. I try very hard to condense the information into the six-six rule--six lines, six word max, but this was just not practical for my field. I'd love to see this used for many of the talks I attend for charity updates or local community development projects.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the PowerPoint Classics June 12, 2012

By Geetesh Bajaj

Format:Paperback

This is an amazing book -- one of the books that led the trend wherein presentation designers actually created a story around what their message was -- and in this respect, Cliff's book does an amazing job. This 3rd edition adds an extra chapter that talks about the success of one of Cliff's presentations in the legal domain, and it makes very interesting reading.

However, and this comment is about some of the other reviews I have read about this book on Amazon -- do not expect this book to work for reporting stuff you create -- I know that many users these days use PowerPoint as a reporting tool for their business performances as a review tool. This book is for actual presentations that are delivered to audiences -- it works miracles in that scenario.