Customer Reviews

Point, Click & Wow!!: A Quick Guide to Brilliant Laptop Presentations

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this book is 3 years old, it still has lots of practical advice, from what colors to use to how to ensure that you are prepared on the day of your presentation. There are many specific suggestions about designing a presentation, getting to know your audience, choosing effective graphics, using animation wisely and standing up before an audience. The book closes with several helpful checklists. This book is applicable to any presentation program.

I expected more of this book and CD than they provided. If you're a new PowerPoint user, this is a good resource for the basics. If you're accustomed to using PowerPoint, and you've done presentations before, this book doesn't have much to offer beyond the usual recommendations, e.g., keep it brief, only so many lines per slide, etc. I would suggest you check this book out of the library rather than buy it.

Wilder and Rotondo have given us the Art and Science of Presenting -- from researching the audience, focusing on the goal of presentation, and organizing the content, to using technological tools, designing for impact, and rehearsing. The principles covered in their book can be used for any type of presentation situation (not just a PowerPoint slide show) and will therefore be useful to readers many times in the future.

This book is a thorough, legitimate entry in the presentation guidance field by someone who is clearly a professional immersed on a full-time basis in training would-be presenters. It goes through structuring, preparing and delivering a presentation in exhaustive detail (much more so than most books on PowerPoint), and is chock full of tables, checklists and references to useful material. It also comes with a CD-ROM including many of the sample presentations the author discusses.

The best way to look at this book is to think of it as a solid, year-long, introductory course at an excellent state university. ("Huh?" I hear you ask...) The unfortunate fact is that most people who give PowerPoint presentations have no training, no conception of what makes for a good presentation, and no skills in either story telling or graphic design. If I had to give an entering letter grade to the clients (mostly corporate CEOs) who come to me for presentation coaching, I would say that the range is from D to C+, with a very rare occasional outlier of a B. This book, if read cover to cover and followed religiously, is pretty much guaranteed to take everyone, no matter what your starting level, up to a B+. And that result would both be doing a major service to humanity, and is something that 90% of Wilder's corporate readers would be delighted to achieve.

The problem is that since this book was first written, the bar has been raised on what constitutes a 'great' presentation. Heeding Wilder's advice, while assuring you of a solid set of presentation skills, will also assure that you DON'T hit the ball out of the park. The epitome of presentation quality these days, as represented by the work of people like Nancy Duarte (who did Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and who has written her own presentation book, slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations), Larry Lessig, Hans Rosling, Bill Strickland, Rives, Ze Frank, and others (many of whose presentations can be viewed online at ted dot com), is simply a different beast from the traditional bullet point/diagram slides, no matter how carefully edited or structured. These 'new world' presentations break through typical lists and points, and are mostly (if not all) zen-like in their simplicity, serving as *supporting* emotional resonance for the speaker, rather than data that is narrated by the presenter.

While you probably should buy this book for its in-depth discussion of mechanics and preparation skills, the 'bible' of modern presentation design is Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds, whose blog of the same name has become mandatory reading for the world-class presenting crowd. PresentationZen (to return to my analogy) is the Ivy League seminar taught by the world class professor, that will inspire you for the rest of your life.

If you're serious about learning to give great presentations, your library should probably include Wilder, certainly include Duarte, and absolutely, positively MUST include Reynolds. Other excellent works to go alongside them on the shelf are Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman and The Articulate Executive: Learn to Look, Act, and Sound Like a Leader by Granville Toogood.

But whatever you do, read at least one of the above, and take its message to heart. Powerpoint can be sublime when done correctly, and you owe it to your audience to do your best to make it so!

As part of my preparation for Lotusphere, I've been reading the book Point, Click & Wow! - A Quick Guide To Brilliant Laptop Presentations by Claudyne Wilder and Jennifer Rotondo. I don't know how "brilliant" my slides will be, but they certainly don't suck as much as they used to! :-)

The book is filled with a ton of practical material on how to prepare a laptop presentation, as well as how to deliver a great presentation regardless of the technology. Everything from organizing your data to slide composition to presentation timing to pre-presentation preparation. If you're an accomplished speaker, you may already know all this stuff. If you're just starting out, you'll learn a lot. Recommended.

I have had the pleasure of meeting the author and hearing her speak, and she is incredible in her understanding of the advantage that clear and exciting communication can offer. To provide her presentation skills, her tips and insights in this one book is a great deal--glad it is finally on the market! If we could all have Claudyne Wilder at our side as we make our presentations, we would shine! The content is thoughtfully presented, thorough and unique. Step by step, the author helps us move forward to a whole new level. Great book for helping with all aspects of business and organizational presentations.

Tricks and tips for ppt software, computer functions, slide layout, presentation aids and how to hold a cool presentation are worth every Penny of this book. Out of the last three books I have read, this one is the best.

This third edition is a combination of coaching for presentation format and delivery, and the mechanics of constructing the presentation. Each chapter is complete in itself, and all chapters fit together as a total work. There are many tricks and neat techniques to prepare and deliver a concise presentation, so the audience will consider viewing it to be a good use of their time. Particularly good are the "Power Point Tips" in gray boxes, and the end of chapter checklists. If you follow the author's methods, your audience will experience the difference.

It's easy to forget that truly great presentations did not just come out of thin air - they require lots of hard work. This book outlines a practical approach to work towards success, but it's not a magic bullet. Practice and incorporation of many of these techniques will make perfect.

As a university professor that gives lectures to a wide variety of audiences, in the USA and abroad, this book takes a step-by-step approach to becoming an even more effective speaker. It begins by helping you think through your strategy and provides even the most polished speaker with new tactics and small but so thoughtful tips about using PowerPoint and organizing slide shows. Given the importance of making persuasive presentations, this should be required reading for every manager. I would particularly recommend it for MBA students. They will learn how to give an effective, professional presentation to executives.