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

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!

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!

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.

You use PowerPoint at work to create strategic plans, executive briefings, research reports and other boardroom-style slides. But could your slides be clearer, more convincing and built in half the time? You bet! Learn a new method for business managers who want to use PowerPoint at work to drive strategy. The Mindworks Presentation Method is based on 40 years of research in brain science, instructional design and information design and will help you to eliminate time wasters and complete PowerPoint decks three times faster, to enhance your credibility by creating visually pleasing slides using simple graphic design rules, to make complex slides easier to understand and avoid "Death by PowerPoint" forever, to make audiences more likely to agree with you by applying the proven principles of master persuaders.

Giving good presentations is not just common sense. Cognitive neuroscientist Stephen M. Kosslyn shows how to make presentations work better based on how our brains work. Where many books focus on how to create a first draft, Better PowerPoint gives you quick steps to improve one you already have. · 8 key rules that are easy to remember and use · Clear principles about how to design effective slides based on well-established scientific data · Quick steps to sharpen and strengthen your presentation · Easy-to-use checklists guide you through each aspect of your presentation · Chapters are structured to help you prioritize the most effective edits · Memorable examples and illustrations to show what works, and what doesn't · Lessons in what to fix can also help you create better first drafts faster. If you have a PowerPoint presentation that is not giving you the results you want, take advantage of what scientific research can tell you about how your audience is seeing and thinking about what you have to say.

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.

Experience learning made easy-and quickly teach yourself how to create dynamic presentations with PowerPoint 2010. With STEP BY STEP, you set the pace-building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Topics include creating great-looking slides using templates or your own designs; creating sophisticated charts and diagrams; using animation, sound, and other special effects; creating presentations simultaneously with others over the Web; delivering presentations; and other core topics.

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.