Best yet from Cliff Atkinson... I'm now a complete fan!
I recommend "Beyond Bullet Points" in my class all the time. I continually have people coming up to me and asking where my slides came from or how I go about creating them. While I cannot say that I stick to the BBP process strictly, I do use its concepts heavily in my slides. This is why I tell these people ot start with BBP.
Well, I just picked up my copy of the 2007 version of BBP last week and wow! This is what it should have always been. It was good before, but the difference between the original BBP and the 2007 versions is as big as the difference between PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007. Cliff has provided much more in the way of research-based findings that support the BBP methodology. He has also, I feel, done a much better job of explaining the whole process.
If you are totally new to BBP, you will understand the process and the reason it works much better with this new version that those of us who are old timers now. If you've used the first book or were even turned off by the first book, I highly recommend taking a look at this one. I don't believe you'll regret it.
Genuinely novel and helpful tips? Brilliant!
I'm a real cynic about books like this, since they tend to be 99% fluff and 1% practical advice. I was very pleasantly surprised by Beyond Bullet Points. It outlines a great way of presenting, and it does so very clearly. I especially appreciated that it brings in sound educational and psychological research to show why things should be done a certain way, such as the discussion on how typical presentations lead to interference on the audio channel of human information processing. (Don't worry - the language is completely non-technical in this book!)
Getting this book and using the technique in it will make you a very impressive presenter, and spare your audience the soul-crushing boredom that usually results from PowerPoint presentations. Be warned that it isn't "easy" - the technique prompts you to think about your presentation more than you may be used to. Nothing good is completely easy!
Great practical advice
This is not a blow by blow of the bells and whistles of the program. The book gives a clear presentation which re-thinks the purpose of the program: conveying information effectively. Forget what the company put into the program; use the program more effectively in presentation. Tell your story.
beyond bullet points
I have found the book a useful tool for the developmental stage. So far, good, however, when it arrived the box was opened at the bottom, due to a lack of tape. I was lucky it ALL arrived as one.
Great System
Cliff gives some novel ideas for designing presentations. I am trying to figure out a way to use them with my sermon slides. His method is similar to what Bert Decker Teaches in Bold Assurance. Hoping to hear more from Cliff. Would love to see him write a book and relate it to Apple Keynote, which to me is a far superior presentation software package.
Good job Cliff, who after the perfect storm in Angleton, TX is probably getting right up their with Donald Trump. Great ideas!
