PowerPoint: The storyteller's way

I admit, I approached Cliff Atkinson's book Beyond Bullet Points with a little skepticism. I thought the subtitle ("Using Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations that inform, motivate, and inspire") promised more than I expected the book would deliver.

(Plus it irritates me that so much of the blame for poor public speaking is placed on PowerPoint. It's like blaming karaoke machines for bad singers.)

So I started reading. And got interested immediately, because the whole method that the book is based on is centered on the story. Telling a story to the audience. PowerPoint is just the tool for creating the story, and the resulting slides help the audience follow the story.

Since one of my favorite books is Robert McKee's "Story", seeing how that approach could be made into a step-by-step method that anyone can use to structure and create an interesting presentation was fascinating for me. (I did start thinking of examples of presentations that wouldn't be as effective using this method, but one size never really fits all and what's important is that "Beyond Bullet Points" would work for many topics and audiences and occasions.)

For more information, check out his interview on Office Online: "A talk with Cliff Atkinson".

If fiction is more your style, indulge in a delightful spoof of "The Davinci Code".