Beyond Bullet Points, 3rd Edition: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Business Skills)

My boss's boss recently told me that our organization's presentations are boring data dumps that make her wish she was somewhere other than there listening but not really hearing or caring about this slide and dreading the next. She suggested that since I was going to be doing a lot of presentations in the future I should avoid that method and do better presentations. I immediately sought advice from our best presenter and learned that his method came from his gut feelings about what worked better. He has good instincts but to codify what he explained I decided to buy a book to learn why his approach works. The closest book with an effective explanation I could find is "beyond bullet points". It captured and expanded on the instinct my new mentor explained so that I could now understand how to use the slides to supplement the story and how to interweave the data so the whole presentation is more meaningful and memorable. I recommend this book to anyone looking for more of an answer on how to improve their presentations and eliminate the data dump in bullet points.

I don't understand the enthusiasm for this book. Every time I open it, I find myself begging it to get to the point already. If the author got to the point in a reasonable amount of words, I'd be reviewing a bulleted list. It's, well, here is a sample: Advertisers are well aware of Aristotle's ideas and techniques of storytelling and persuasion, because at its essence, every advertisement is a persuasive story. Whether you look up at a billboard, open a magazine, or watch television, you're seeing a mini-story built on the fundamentals of persuasion. Each advertisement has a singular goal in mind: to persuade you to do something - usually, to buy a product. To persuade you, an advertiser will use the most current and sophisticated blend of multimedia possible. But beneath the media mix are the same classical story elements you've been working with in Act 1 of the story template: the clarifying questions where, when, who, what, why, and how. As in a PowerPoint presentation, the protagonist of an advertisement is usually the audience - in this case, you - because the advertiser's goal is to persuade you to buy or think something new. So if you're watching a commercial for a laundry detergent, you can compare the questions your audience silently asks of you five Act 1 scenes to what you see on TV, something like this:--Where are we, and when is it? (I'm home, and it's the afternoon.)--Who are we in this setting? (I'm a person getting ready to go out for the evening.

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)

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.

It has been some time since I have utilized Beyond Bullet Points, but this is one text book that kept with me. The point of the book is to help a presenter get their point across to the audience through Powerpoint presentations, and the book does this well. I am sure there are editions other than this one at this point, and I would definitely recommend looking into them in order to keep up to date. Starting with this book is a great idea due to its simplicity.

It is a book about presentations - visual presentations -and its lacking visual appeal.Simple things with typography and page layout could have been helpful. I feel like the text could be cut down at least 25-30% color added, nicer presentation of examples-- and you will have a better product. Its like a Xerox copy of a textbook. It has useful information, but needs more time spent on design and layout.

Worth it as a primer to slide content and how it inter-relates to the delivery when giving a presentation. Very slightly laboured, like most TV documentaries nowadays - you feel they could move a bit faster (...yeah we got it the first time).

This book rocks! It provide a simple and structured way to define, develop and deliver a "Kick Ass" presentation that you can project or just use from the podium. It bring the audio and visual together to compliment a story to be shared. It has taken the hassel factor out of designing a presentation for anyone on any subject. Thank you!

Ok

Excellent. If you use Power Point you should read this! One of the best teaching books I have read. Clear and explicit. I normally jump introductory chapters but not this time. The scientific basis for the later chapters gave me all the confidence I needed to put these ideas into practice - with startlingly good results.

good

As a Microsoft Certified Trainer this book was a refreshing read, with many excellent tips on how to not become a statistic of the old adage and stigma "Death by PowerPoint"Well worth the purchase for anyone who is looking to or using PowerPoint on a regular basis.

Il Metodo di Storyboarding applicato ad una presentazione interessante restituisce dignità alle presentazioni con Slide.Una dignità spesso FRANTUMATA dall'approccio "TI LEGGO UNA SLIDE PIENA PIENA DI INFORMAZIONI"Interessantissima l'introduzione, prosegue con un metodo sistematico di realizzazione di Presentazioni UTILI e a prova di sonno.Secondo me è un complemento perfetto all'approccio ZEN di Garr Reynolds.