Customer Reviews

Really Bad PowerPoint: (and how to avoid it)

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Do you ever use PowerPoint while presenting? Dude, read this book. You'll be doing all of us a favor.

Seth Godin's ebook is 10 pages and costs $1.99, which I think goes to charity. People, for less than a cup of coffee you could be reading this thing. You'll probably be done in less than an hour from now!

But for the rest of your life your presentations will be better and your audiences will forever more benefit from your presentations instead of belittling your skills. Which, let's face it, is what they are doing now.

Very quick read on power point presentation. Excellent insight in this concise read. I recommend.

The opening line -- "Why Are Your PowerPoints So Bad? (Hint: it's not your fault)" -- makes me wonder, then, why should I bother? If it's the program's fault, then nothing I can do will make any difference. An odd choice of introduction.

The author does provide a very few visual examples, some of them helpful, but far too few for a document supposedly aimed at helping create better visual examples. If his own presentations are as stellar as he thinks they are ("[my] PowerPoints are not boring"), he could certainly spare maybe at least another half-dozen or so -- to communicate his own points effectively.

"But what you do now is lazy and ineffective. It bores people and doesn't communicate with them." The author doesn't seem to have any trust in the reader.

He states his "Five Rules" as if he received them on Mount Sinai: "No more than six words on a slide. Ever." Please. Even though I've seen several sources that suggest similar limits, and agreeing that verbiage is FAR too often overdone, legitimate reasons may call for more on occasion.

And absolutely *no* transitions? Not even a dissolve here and there? Absurd. Again, certainly, the overuse and abuse of them grates on me as well; too many presenters seem to throw in thirteen different effects just because they can. Regardless, most transitions or actions CAN have a meaningful application, IF one has enough imagination and creativity. Why the author deems it impossible to envision *anything* other than hard cuts -- I dunno.

You may find few of his points on reports and handouts may be more practical, especially if you haven't yet realized how much the paper may distract your audience. Otherwise, if you're serious about improving your digital presentation skills, I suggest that you look into the dozen or so other worthwhile titles available here on Amazon, or as I've often done, from my public library.

This ebook is extremely brief (10 pages).

It has some valid points, but is presented in text rather than with visual examples.

It is also quite outdated in some regards. For example, it complains that Powerpoint doesn't let you include "flash card" notes for your presentation, which we all know that both Powerpoint and Keynote both do provide "presentation/slide notes" functionality.

You'll be much better off reading: Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery