However, there is another view to the use of the PowerPoint. What if you were the focus of the presentation instead of the PowerPoint, and the presentation simply added visual stimuli to your words?
That is what Cliff Atkinson teaches in his book Beyond Bullet Points. I bought the book about six months ago, after hearing Cliff speak at a Microsoft online seminar, and used the philosophy behind it to steer some of my client's presentations away from bullet lists. Recently I had the chance to use the whole process during a presenation of my own and it worked extremely well.
Key to Cliff's method is building an argument - he defines it in terms of a movie script, but it is basically a classical argument - with one item per slide. His book takes you through the process in minute detail, anyone can follow along, leaving you with a presentation that focuses on you, as the speaker.
Especially useful is how Cliff uses the notes feature in MS PowerPoint to create beautifully formatted handouts. This on its own was worth the price of the book.
Thanks for Brad Feld for posting about Beyond Bullet Points first and reminding me of this great book.
