slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations

I'm not Steve Jobs, but I do take pride in designing presentations I need to make for life. I didn't know what to expect from this book after hearing some positive things- but I'd read almost all the recent books on the subject (most of which the author cites). Slideology's strength is that it covers every element of slide design from colors and transitions to use of charts. The book itself feels more like a coffee tab art book. Not much text, lots of negative space. It's nicely designed. The book is a great reference to have around - more so than other books on the subject.

A few highlights-
- Tons of chart types and their meanings
- Color coordination tips
- The idea to use post it notes for planning

Another treasure this book has a list of "Further Reading" at the end that includes works beyond presentations.

I found all the video or animated slides tedious even though the ideas were impressive. Also, almost all the case studies in the book were trivial at best. Sort of the, "I know this awesome guy and he makes presentations for work and they look like this!"

In any case, if you have never read one of these presentation books, buy this one. If you have read all of them, buy this one too, since. If you're Steve Jobs, you can pass.

Duarte has been doing presentation design for a long time and it was nice to finally see a book from Nancy Duarte on their methodology of presentation design. It was informative and instructive, but not entirely prescriptive (which would have been better in some cases). However the insights she provides are worth the purchase and I found this book a keeper.

'slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations' is a fantastic book that shows you how to create better presentations, plain and simple. In 250+ pages you get a great guide that is perfect for all presenters or people that help in the presentation process. Not a book to teach you how to use PowerPoint better, this book goes through all the nuts and bolts and does it very well. From diagramming to arrangement to images and slides this book teaches you the fundamentals of how to get the most bang from your buck when you need to get a good presentation out the door. Relying on case studies and 20 years of industry experience the author tells you what has made her company successful and how YOU can be successful as well, getting ideas out in the most efficient way possible.

If you are in the field, pick up this book TO-DAY.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I don't see how you could read this book and not markedly improve your presentations. No, it won't improve your diction. It doesn't teach you how to make sweeping gestures. And there is no advice about where to stand or how to set up the room. There are other books that do that.

What Nancy Duarte has done however, is to write a book that seeks to transform the banal "more is better" bullet-pointed slide show into a presentation that creatively use visuals to deliver our thoughts and ideas to an engaged audience.

It's a step-by-step guide to building great presentations, yet not at all written like a "how-to" book. I loved Chapter 2 Creating ideas, Not Slides which was chock full of tips on thinking about our message. My favorite was Chapter 11 Interacting with Slides. Duarte begins the chapter with a discussion of constraints, and includes specific tips on how to reign in our unmanageable slide shows. She concludes with a well-reasoned plea to not just deliver presentations, but to connect with our audience.

It's a colorful, beautiful book even though the small grey type can be a bit hard on the eyes. For a great companion piece pick up Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen.

Tufte shook the PowerPoint world with his pointed critism of the program. What Tufte failed to address, however, is that the problem is not with the program, but with users who simply create bad presentations. . .

Now, there's no excuse. Slide:ology and Nancy Duarte provide the tools and techniques for visually effective presentations -- no matter what program is used.