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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Complete but flawed, April 8, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (Paperback)
For ever since I remember Que has producing big books on a program which have details of almost everything the program does. Que bills this as "the only PowerPoint 2003 book you'll need," and though that may be open to question, this book would be worth choosing if you only had one book. Patrice-Anne Rutledge has done a great job of showing how to use the features. The book is full of screen shots and explanations of choices in dialog boxes, and there's plenty of evidence that she draws on her experience of presentations she's created. However . . . presentations aren't just about knowing how to use the program. You need skills in creating slides and delivering them. The last 230 pages of this 720 page book are written by Tom Mucciolo, and this is where the book falls down. In spite of having his own business coaching people on how to present, in print Mucciolo has trouble getting to the point, and his chapters are full of superfluous text and often unfunny and annoying jokes. It's almost as though he was struggling to make the chapters long enough. So ignore the book beyond page 491. What you'll get is well-written details of the program; what you'll miss is a few ideas that aren't really worth reading the rest of the book.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An adequate book, May 4, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (Paperback)
The concept of having the theory of presentations separated from the practice in the two separate halves of the book did not really work for me. I would have liked the book to be about PowerPoint and only PowerPoint from start to finish.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
POWERPOINT and MORE!, June 25, 2004
This review is from: Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (Paperback)
This is absolutely the best PowerPoint book out there! I create presentations for our salespeople and they, at times, need to make edits and changes. When I showed this book to them, their overwhelming reaction was about the second section of the book on presentation skills by Tom Mucciolo. They found it so helpful, especially because they have to present PowerPoint presentations all the time. The first part of the book, by Patrice Rutledge and others is extremely helpful for anyone who has to use PowerPoint, even if they've been using it for a while. The step-by-step instructions guide you through all the features of the program with a lot of screen shots and examples. But, the last 230 pages made all the difference, especially to me, since I am very uncomfortable speak in front of any size group. Tom Mucciolo's writing style is so easy-to-read combining light-hearted and humorous comments with very practical presentation advice. I never knew that standing on one side of the room rather than the other side makes a difference! He breaks down the presentation process into all the stages from the initial script, to the visual design and into the basic and advanced levels of delivery. He talks about using and abusing multimedia and he even goes into great detail about room setup and other logistics that so many presenters forget about completely. Our salespeople each have a copy of this book and the second part is a "must" read for them. Even if you only design presentations, the presentation advice in this book will help not only you but anyone who presents the visuals you prepare.
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