Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 147
 Indispensable September 9, 2009
Ana Maria Otero Casal (Santiago, Spain)
Losts of good advices, great graphic examples, nice tips about sites to visit.
It will change your mental scheme about presentations just looking at the examples.
The Bible of Presentation September 8, 2009
Dag T. Hanoa (Fredrikstad, Norway)
If you are a beginner in presenting this book will get you going in the right direction. If you think are an experinced presenter - this book will make you think again. Your life as a presenter wil never be the same again.
Presentation Zen September 6, 2009
Gerald D. Rogers (Seattle, WA USA)
Excellant source of information that helped create an extraordinary Power Point Presentation and web site.
 Surprise them with honesty August 25, 2009
Alan Engel (Villanova, PA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Presentation Zen owes more to American evangelical Christianity than to Zen Buddhism. Promoting oneself or one's cause, no matter how artfully, clashes with Zen Buddhism; it fits hand and glove with evangelical Christianity.
A self-concious member of a self-identified elite, the author embeds practical advice in a cloak of Zen metaphors. A reader who wants to learn how to make good, solid presentations can get most of this by googling Simon Peyton-Jones and following the advice in his presentation on how to give a good research presentation.
Of course, Reynolds goes far beyond Peyton-Jones artistically. Presentation Zen is for readers who want to craft a presentation to sell themselves or their cause. But readers who want to effectively share content with peers, Presentation Zen goes too far. Unless the peers also are more intent on selling themselves or their causes than they are in sharing content. In audiences of Presentation Zen speakers, you will hear comments about showmen or "drinking the Kool-Aid." These speakers risk losing their credibility and having their audiences disconnect. Reynolds hints at this when he recommends using quotes to enhance credibility: credibility that depends on quotes is rather thin to begin with. Reynolds recommends surprising the audience: surprise them with honesty.
 And another designer's book . . . August 23, 2009
David Field (Merrimac, MA USA)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I have to rain on the parade of Nancy's book and Garr Reynold's book (and other ones). This is based on the review I gave Duarte's "Slideology."
The message is "I'm one of the best slide designers in the world (which is true) and I'm going to show you WHY."
The message should be "I'm one of the best slide designers in the world and I'm going to show you HOW."
You'll see plenty to interest you, but unless you're a full-fledged graphic designer you'll never recreate these slides. Imagine putting this book (and Duarte's book) into a room with some of your worst slide creators, or even yourself. Would you see an improvement in their skills? I doubt it.
You might as well become a painter by reading books that have the world's greatest pictures in them. Even though there is explanatory text here it isn't enough to bridge the gap.
To see a book written for its audience, try the "Before and After" books by Jon McWade which deal with desktop publishing. Unfortunately John has not yet tackled slides, but you can see an page layout idea and make it yourself in minutes.
So, sorry about this, because both this and Duarte's book are "nice" books. The energy has gone into the book's design and production rather than the content. But that makes them coffee-table books, and unless you have a coffee table in your office I'd advise that you give both of them a miss.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 147
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