Solving the Powerpoint Predicament: Using Digital Media for Effective Communication

Solving the PowerPoint Predicament

Using Digital Media for Effective Communication

Don’t Just Present: Inspire!

Everyone uses PowerPoint, but how effective is your presentation at meeting the goals you’ve outlined? A great presentation is more than just a slideshow–it’s about using PowerPoint to its maximum potential to get your message across to your audience. That’s the PowerPoint Predicament. Tom Bunzel reveals how to conceive, plan, develop, and deliver truly effective business, academic, and inspirational communications, not just PowerPoint slideshows. Discover how to motivate your audience by:

• Getting beyond bullet points to tell a story that touches your audience at the deepest levels
• Mastering proven principles of effective communication
• Planning, organizing, and designing every presentation for maximum impact
• Making sure every word, image, effect, and slide exists for a good reason
• Creating charts and diagrams that instantly make your point
• Using animation, navigation, video, and audio to drive home your message, not distract from it
• Avoiding mistakes that lead to boring presentations: no more “death by PowerPoint”
• Building Web and self-running kiosk presentations that really work
• Leveraging the rest of Microsoft Office to create even better presentations
• Using third-party add-ons to communicate with PowerPoint even more effectively: video capture, flowcharting, DVD authoring, rehearsal, and more

When you present, you’re on the line: your credibility, your career, your future as a leader. Use your software and imagination to its full potential–with this book!

Covers PowerPoint 2007, 2003, XP, 2000, 99, and 97– for Windows or Mac PowerPoint users

Tom Bunzel is a leading presentation expert. He has appeared on Tech TV’s “Call for Help,” was a featured speaker at InfoComm and PowerPoint LIVE, and has served as a technology coach for companies ranging from Iomega to the Neuroscience Education Institute, where he provided personal PowerPoint instruction to physicians. He offers live seminars via streaming media, and he has been published in Presentations Magazine. His books include Sams Teach Yourself PowerPoint 2003 in 24 Hours and Digital Video on the PC. He updated the Visual QuickStart Guide to PowerPoint 2002/2001 for Windows and Mac.

The book companion CD-ROM contains numerous PowerPoint presentations and other examples from the book, two sample chapters from Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire, and trial software from Instant Effects (OfficeFX), Serious Magic (Ovation and Vlog It!), and TechSmith (Camtasia and Snag It).

Developing a compelling PowerPoint presentation involves much more than mastering one program. It involves integrating different programs, third party tools, and hardware resources to convey a message that has been skillfully crafted. From blogs to podcasts to the rise of amateur digital photography and videography, there's ample evidence to the passion among the public for communicating effectively. You crave not a how-to manual but a frame of reference for telling your stories effectively, both in front of a group, online, and across multiple digital platforms and media.

Solving the PowerPoint Predicament will walk your through three fundamental steps: (1) honing (and sticking to!) a compelling message, mastering and applying appropriate technologies, (3) integrating technology with verbal delivery skills needed for a successful presentation. This book really gives you everything you need to deliver a successful presentation that people will remember.

Tom Bunzel specializes in knowing what presenters need and how to make technology work. He has appeared on Tech TV’s Call for Help and has been a featured speaker at InfoComm and PowerPoint LIVE, as well as working as a “technology coach” for companies including Iomega, Community Vision, and the Neuroscience Education Institute.

Tom Bunzel has written a number of books, the latest being Teach Yourself PowerPoint 2003 in 24 Hours and Easy Digital Music for Que Publishing. Tom Bunzel’s other books are Easy Creating CDs and DVDs, How to Use Ulead DVD Workshop, Digital Video on the PC, and the update to Peachpit Press’ Visual QuickStart Guide to PowerPoint 2002/2001. He was a contributing editor to Presentations Magazine and writes a weekly column as the Office Reference Guide for InformIT.com.

As an instructor for Learning Tree International, Bunzel has taught several courses: “Integrating Microsoft Office” and “Creating Interactive Websites–Hands On.” He has worked with many speakers, including helping Gregg Ketter of KTTV-TV with his motivational, customer service, and sales speeches, and he trained the principals of MTA Films and Todd Yamada, D.D.S., in PowerPoint and multimedia production. Bunzel has also lectured at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Communicate (a multimedia facility), and at the San Diego Computer Expo.

Tom can be reached through his website (www.professorppt.com).