Robin has given millions of successful presentations in the past twenty years (hundreds, actually, but millions has a nice ring to it). She says she’s learned from each one and keeps getting better, and happily, so did the software. Today there are many, many presentation books on the shelves, and she’s studied just about all of them. From my point of view, most of those books are, well, ponderous, pretentious, and confusing.
One of Robin’s goals was to write the book she wishes she’d had twenty years ago, when she started giving presentations to schools, conferences, organizations, and workshops. A book that cuts to the chase and tells you what you need to know right now for that presentation that’s due this week. In this book, you’ll find great design tips and great software tips. That’s because Robin’s obsessed with design and typographic excellence. And it shows in the more than 60 books she’s written, designed, and produced (most of them award-winners and best-sellers).
There are three things you must know and accept before attempting to create a good digital presentation:
It takes time. You need to gather and organize your content, create effective slides in your preferred software, and rehearse. There’s no way around this. Of course, you can create a functional and perhaps passable digital presentation in a short amount of time, but to create a good or great one, you need to invest the time.
You must learn your software. You cannot create a good presentation unless you know how to use the software. Read the manual. Read the help files. Take a class. PowerPoint likes to take over your formatting, so if you want control over your slides (which of course you do), you must learn how to circumvent its automatic features and take charge.
Everyone expects more these days. Thanks to television, DVDS, keynote speeches and conferences broadcast on the Internet, and even professional presenters on tour, your audience has raised the bar for slide presentations. The advent of communication technology has put you in competition with the best presenters in the world. You can still get away with bad design and schlocky presentations, but now everyone knows just how bad it really is.
Since you’re holding this book, you are obviously interested in learning how to design visually interesting and professional-looking slides. You are so lucky you chose this book! I’ll bet you’ll actually read this one. And it’ll make a difference.
Robin has outdone herself, creating a book that’s destined to be as popular as her earlier best-seller, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, which has influenced non-designers, professional designers, and yes, even other design authors, the world over. —jt