Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

I am a self taught user of PowerPoint and I thought this might help me in making better preseentations. I'm not sure I agree with all the info, but I did pick up a few points.

Review: by Gregory West
gregory@alternatecloud.com
VP - Sarnia Computer Users' Group (scug.ca)
APCUG Advisor (apcug.net)

Title: beyond bullet points

by Cliff Atkinson
Published by Microsoft Press
ISBN- 978-0-7356-275-2'Pages: 330
USA: $29.99 / CDA: $34.99
Website: [...]Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Business Skills) (English and English Edition)

All of us have had, or were forced, to sit through a PowerPoint presentation wishing we were somewhere else. The speaker was so boring, the presentation slides were cheesy and extremely confusing, and our insides screamed for us to get up and leave the room.

Beyond bullet points is designed in such a way that this will never happen when you give your next presentation. This book takes us through the proper steps in creating the most interesting and very definitive presentation possible. Here is where we learn the importance of telling a story with our slides. Layout is another import issue that is fully covered in Chapter 4: "Planning Your First Five Slides". This is where you learn how to grab your audience right away and keep them focused on your presentation.

You will learn why graphics are so important and how they can make or break a presentation. Chapter 8 is where the fun begins as you learn how to add graphics to various areas within your slides. You will learn how to use the graphics you already have on your computer, and how to get graphics from "Stock Photography Web Sites".

Your PowerPoint presentation comes together in Chapter 9: "Delivering Your...Presentation". The amateur presenters are separated from the professionals. This chapter prepares you for the delivery of your presentation. Here you are shown the basic ground rules for removing distractions, prompting a dialogue and how to enhance your presentation effectively.

A real treat is found in Appendix A where ground rules and checklists act as an overview ensuring you have created a very professional presentation.''Added features: This book comes with website links for "Companion Content" with key tools and a bonus Chapter 11, introducing a "Visual Improv", PDF version of the ground rules and checklists. You also get a voucher for your free online version of this book. For anyone who is serious about their presentations, this book is a keeper.Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Business Skills) (English and English Edition)

In the Beyond Bullet Points Series, Cliff Atkinson changes the way we think about presentations, not just a series of bullet points, but a story to tell. A story has a beginning, middle, and end, a plot, and so forth, and so should a top presentation. This method takes more preparation, but the outcome is well worth the effort. Imagine people walking away from your presentation remembering what you were talking about.

I have never liked giving presentations and this book helped me out a lot. If you don't like to give presentations, or have to give a lot of them, you should read this book.

Cliff shows details how to improve our PowerPoint presentations. He gives concrete and simple steps to transform a message into a targeted presentation. All of us have suffered from presenters who went over their allotted time because they had vital information to give us, yet we still didn't know their main point. Many have seen slide decks burdened with dozens of bullet points. Did the volume of points yield more clarity or did they dull our ability to focus on the message? Probably not. Read Cliff's book. Follow his method and you'll be a more effective presenter.Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Business Skills English and English Edition)

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.

Very easy to follow, excellent illustrations and examples. Though not everything applies to all presentations, I found many points to influence my business presentations.

This is VERY elementary. I was hoping for something that would help me create really nice slides. But this is more theoretical and basic.