Beyond Bullet Points

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!

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!

This book focuses exclusively on the application of PowerPoint to the creation of online training programs. Better than Bullet Points, Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint fills that gap. By providing in-depth guidance, specific instructions, and helpful exercises, the book will enable training practitioners to create impactful learning interactions in PowerPoint. The author steps readers through the powerful features of this popular desktop application, covering everything from text to art, animation to interactivity. Provided that the reader owns a copy of PowerPoint, this book will immediately put free real-world tools into the hands of those who need it. The information is practical rather than theoretical and immediately applicable. Most importantly, this book will help make e-learning accessible to those who have previously been excluded from taking advantage of the opportunities e-learning can provide. Jane Bozarth is the e-learning coordinator for the North Carolina Office of State Personnel's Human Resource Development Group and has been a training practitioner since 1989. She is a columnist for Training Magazine and has written for numerous publications including Creative Training Techniques Newsletter and the Journal of Educational Technology and Society.

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.

There’s a bewildering array of management tools out there. And they all promise to help you excel at the toughest parts of your job: defining your organization’s strategic direction, managing customers and costs, and boosting workforce performance. But just 30 percent of these tools deliver as intended. Why? As Jeremy Hope and Steve Player reveal in Beyond Performance Management, while many tools are sound in theory, they’re misused by most organizations. For example, executives buy and implement a tool without first asking, “What problem are we trying to solve?” And they use tools to command and control frontline teams, not empower them—a serious and costly mistake. In this eminently useful, clear-eyed book, the authors critically review dozens of well-known management tools—from mission statements, balanced scorecards, and rolling forecasts to key performance indicators, Six Sigma, and performance appraisals. They explain how to select the right tools for your organization, how to implement them correctly, and how to extract maximum value from each. Brimming with rigorous analysis and solid advice, Beyond Performance Management helps you swiftly gauge the value of each management tool, as well as navigate the increasingly crowded field of offerings—so the tools you select deliver fully on their promise.

ÒThe daily grind,Ó Òthe treadmill,Ó Òback to the salt mines.Ó The very words so many of us use to describe our work and our lives show a deep discontent. Why? And is there a way out? Art Gish says yes, there is - simplicity. Simplify your wants, your life style, your concerns and the way is open to a fuller, more rewarding life - infinitely rich in joy. But, Gish does not advocate the fake simplicity of the hippy, or the martyrdom of the ascetic. He suggests a true application of the things of the world as well as of the spirit, a radical change in goals and values. Practical as well as inspirational, Art Gish presents specific techniques for simplifying your life as you live it now - ways and means which are well within the reach of every one who wants to live their life - ÒBeyond The Rat Race.Ó

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.