Unlock the amazing story buried in your presentation—and forget boring, bullet-point-riddled slides forever! Guided by communications expert Cliff Atkinson, you’ll walk you through an innovative, three-step methodology for increasing the impact of your presentation. Discover how to combine classic storytelling techniques with the power of visual media to create a rich, engaging experience with your audience. Fully updated for PowerPoint 2010, and featuring compelling presentation examples from classroom to boardroom, this book will help transform your presentations—and your business impact!

A guide to using Microsoft PowerPoint describes how to use stories to create effective business presentations.

Beyond Bullet Points, Fourth Edition “Throw away those room-emptying, left-brain slides–and use Atkinson’s book to turn your PowerPoint presentation into an epic.” –Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind Think beyond bullet points–and amplify the impact of your message! Now in its fourth edition, this popular classic illuminates an innovative, step-by-step methodology designed to unlock the amazing visual story waiting to be released from your message. Communications expert Cliff Atkinson shows how to apply classic storytelling tenets and practical, research-based guidelines as you work with Microsoft PowerPoint–for memorable, meaningful, and persuasive visual stories. Change your approach–and transform your results! Find your story thread Create an emotional connection to increase your impact. Cut through the clutter Distill your message and get right to the point. Bring your story to life Storyboard your ideas, find your natural voice, and deliver a compelling presentation!

FOREWORD BY GUY KAWASAKI Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the Net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.

A collection of best practices for creating slide presentations. It changes your approach, process and expectations for developing visual aides. It makes the difference between a good presentation and a great one.

Learn the Secrets Needed to Master PowerPoint for Training As a successful facilitator, you know the importance of the resources in your professional toolkit. How you engage your audience and improve learning can be affected by how well you use them. But mastery of PowerPoint evades many. Feedback on presentations can range from “What was the point?” to “That changed my life.” Most, though, fall closer to the former. If you are looking for a guide to the PowerPoint practices that will push your presentations into the latter category, look no further. A Trainer's Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters is Mike Parkinson's master class on the art of PowerPoint. While Parkinson wants you to understand how amazing a tool PowerPoint is, he's the first to tell you that there is no magic button to make awesome slides. There are, however, proven processes and tools that deliver successful PowerPoint content each and every time you use them. In this book he shares them, detailing his award-winning PowerPoint process and guiding you through three phases of presentation development—discover, design, and deliver. What's more, Parkinson is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP—most valuable professional—an honorific bestowed by Microsoft on those with “very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services.” He shares not only his tips and best practices for presentation success, but also those from several of his fellow MVPs. Parkinson invites you to master PowerPoint as a tool—just like a paintbrush and paint—and to realize that the tool doesn't make the art, you do.

PowerPoint was the first presentation software designed for Macintosh and Windows, received the first venture capital investment ever made by Apple, then became the first significant acquisition ever made by Microsoft, who set up a new Graphics Business Unit in Silicon Valley to develop it further. Now, twenty-five years later, PowerPoint is installed on more than one billion computers, worldwide. In this book, Robert Gaskins (who invented the idea, managed its design and development, and then headed the new Microsoft group) tells the story of its first years, recounting the perils and disasters narrowly evaded as a startup, dissecting the complexities of being the first distant development group in Microsoft, and explaining decisions and insights that enabled PowerPoint to become a lasting success well beyond its original business uses.

Learn how to use stories and visuals to make top–notch presentations It′s called CAST (Content, Audience, Story, & Tell) and it′s been a quiet success, until now. Developed over a twelve year period as a presentation method to help Enterprise Architects, it was adopted by Microsoft Enterprise Architecture teams and filtered from IT managers to Sales, and beyond to major organizations around the world. Now, thanks to this unique book from an expert author team that includes two Microsoft presentation experts, you can learn how to use this amazing process to create and make high–impact presentations in your own organization. The book helps you build complete visual stories, step by step, by using the CAST method to first create a Story Map and from there, a compelling presentation. It includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more. You′ll discover how to go beyond PowerPoint slides to create presentations that influence your peers and effect change. Explains the secrets of making presentations and effecting change using CAST to create Story Maps and from there, high–impact and visual presentations that tell a story Covers how to apply a range of techniques and what the results look like, using screenshots of presentations, one page hand outs, and basic delivery with whiteboards Coauthored by Microsoft experts and a visual design guru who have years of experience training professionals in these methods Includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more Learn how to sell your ideas and trigger change in your company with Stories That Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations.

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read Steve Krug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the same style as the original: wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and veteran alike. Don't be surprised if it completely changes the way you think about Web design. Three New Chapters! Usability as common courtesy -- Why people really leave Web sites Web Accessibility, CSS, and you -- Making sites usable and accessible Help! My boss wants me to ______. -- Surviving executive design whims "I thought usability was the enemy of design until I read the first edition of this book. Don't Make Me Think! showed me how to put myself in the position of the person who uses my site. After reading it over a couple of hours and putting its ideas to work for the past five years, I can say it has done more to improve my abilities as a Web designer than any other book. In this second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for those whose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist on doing the wrong thing. If you design, write, program, own, or manage Web sites, you must read this book." -- Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards

Cutting-edge strategies—ready when you need them. Before bullying surfaces in your school, you need to be ready. This book is organized so you can find the answers you need to make meaningful changes in the way you prevent and respond to bullying. The authors know the challenges educators face. Here they’ve distilled nearly 15 years of research into bite-sized chapters, with strategies and real-world examples to put ideas into action. You’ll learn: How to distinguish bullying from other hurtful behaviors The connection between cyberbullying and in-person bullying Responses that work—and ones that don’t Prevention strategies to put in place now