- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (Feb 24 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0596100043
- ISBN-13: 978-0596100049
- Product Dimensions: 24.9 x 20.4 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#1,333,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43 in Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Applications > PowerPoint
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
If you're vexed and perplexed by PowerPoint, pick up a copy of Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances. This funny, and often opinionated, guide is chock full of tools and techniques for eliminating all the problems that drive audiences and presenters crazy.
There's nothing more discouraging than an unresponsive audience--or worse, one that snickers at your slides. And there's nothing more maddening than technical glitches that turn your carefully planned slide show into a car wreck. Envious when you see other presenters effectively use nifty features that you've never been able to get to work right? Suffer no more! Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances by Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Echo Swinford rides to the rescue.
Microsoft PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software on the planet, with an estimated 30 million presentations given each day. So no matter how frustrated you get, you're not about to chuck the program in the Recycle Bin. Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances, presents smart solutions to a variety of all-too-familiar, real-world annoyances.
The book is divided into big categories, with annoyances grouped by topic. You can read it cover to cover or simply jump to the chapter or section most relevant to you. Inside its pages you'll learn how to create your own templates, work with multiple masters and slide layouts, and take advantage of various alignment and formatting tools. You'll also learn how to import Excel data; insert graphics, PDF, and Word content; create, edit, and format organization charts and diagrams; use action settings and hyperlinks to jump to other slides; and add sound, video, and other types of multimedia to spark up your presentations.
Entertaining and informative, Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances is filled with humorous illustrations and packed with sidebars, tips, and tricks, as well as links to cool resources on the Web.
About the Author
Echo Swinford began making slides as a medical meeting planner in 1997 and just never stopped. She uses PowerPoint as the basis for webcasts, CDs, and online applications. Her web site (http://www.echosvoice.com/) is graced by dozens of downloadables and helpful documents, and she has been a member of the Microsoft PowerPoint MVP team since 2000. She's also probably answered more questions on the PowerPoint newsgroup than anyone else.
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe PowerPoint really isn't all that annoying...,
By
This review is from: Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program (Paperback)
Since I must modify and/or translate Microsoft PowerPoint presentations as part of my daily work, I eagerly delved into 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' by Echo Swinford hoping to find workarounds to many of the irritations I encounter on a regular basis. 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' contains a plethora of suggestions on how presenters can develop presentations that are easier for their audience to follow and understand.The author of 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances', Echo Swinford, is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP who has many years' experience using PowerPoint under her belt. Part of the Annoyances series, her book 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' promises to save us time through its treasure trove of insider tips and tricks. Always looking for ways to shave a few minutes off my workload, I unfortunately came away from 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' feeling somehow as though the book never actually delivered the merchandise. On a positive note, the chapter contents are laid out in a manner similar to a standard FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions) document, which is intuitive for most people who consult software documentation. Furthermore, I appreciated the fact that the author grouped similar topics so that if you never incorporate sound and video in your presentations, for instance, you can skip that chapter without a lingering impression that you might have missed something. I like how the author clearly states that 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' is not a tutorial on how to learn PowerPoint so newbies who have never used the software before will head elsewhere. It also states the versions of PowerPoint covered by the book. This being said, it wasn't entirely clear whether or not this book only applied to the Windows versions of PowerPoint. I did find a few fleeting references to the Macintosh versions of PowerPoint, but they were far outnumbered by the references to the Windows versions. It is a refreshing change to see that the author walks us through workarounds that stray outside the boundaries of PowerPoint itself (ex: how to fine-tune the operating system's hardware acceleration in Windows Control Panel if a PPT file consistently locks up). However, not all the annoyances presented are even remotely software related, which surprised me. I am unsure whether or not troubleshooting projector setup is within the intended scope of this book. Furthermore, I was disappointed that a few basic tricks were conspicuously missing, such as how to calculate the word count of a PPT file. 'Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances' is a moderately good choice for those who need to learn how to effectively give presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint or how to "fix" others' PPT files. I was confused that on the back cover, this book is referred to as an "O'Reilly Expert Title," yet the author herself recommends it for novices. Super-users might therefore be better served by existing Web resources for their specific needs. The level of language employed by the author struck me as somewhat of a turn-off in a few instances. Call me old fashioned, but I don't want to be told that I am "screwed" when reading a reference book on using office software (no matter how futile the situation might be!) The book's conversational style is nonetheless easy to read. Overall, I believe the world would experience a sharp decline in the number of poorly-designed presentations if this book became assigned reading for everyone starting out with PowerPoint. (No more squinting and craning our necks in the audience!) Seasoned users might not feel they got their money's worth, though.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Attempt,
By Pierre - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program (Paperback)
Don't let the title of my review mislead you. This is a great reference book to keep on your shelf and look up when you run into a problem. In fact, you'll find many of the same answers in this book if you search for them on Google Groups, not surprising since Swinford is a regular there. What lets the book down is that it provides a scant three pages on problems arising from using PowerPoint with other applications like Word, PDF and Flash. And in my years of using PowerPoint in a real world situation, these annoyances come up more than anything else. I thought I'll be able to work around these issues when I bought this book, but was disappointed. However, maybe your requirements are different, so to be fair enough, this is just my opinion. Overall, this boom is a nice attempt.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The "Real" Help,
By Geetesh Bajaj - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program (Paperback)
Do you get frustrated working with Microsoft's presentation program, and can't find the answers anywhere? Then you'll love this book. You can't buy this book and expect to learn how to create PowerPoints - this one is to keep on your bookshelf and refer to when you hit a roadblock. And of course, it's so much fun to read even when you are just creating nice presentations - at least you'll know exactly what to do when disaster strikes - and you might be even able to do something about it - after all, prevention is better than cure. Yes, this is first aid for PowerPoint - keep it handy!Geetesh Bajaj/Indezine.com 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required Reading for Students!!,
By Warren Kelly - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program (Paperback)
This time of year, students all over the United States are working on their final projects. Around here, that means senior presentations, which means PowerPoint.I'm not at that school full-time any more, but in years past I've seen just about every problem that could crop up related to PowerPoint. I really could have used Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances - especially when I taught PowerPoint, and had students come to me in a panic when the program told them the file on their floppy disk was corrupt. (Page 43 deals with this problem. Wish I had known the solution two years ago!). PowerPoint has become as important to businesses today as any other program. Presentations are used to pitch new products, ad campaigns, even benefit packages. When it doesn't work right, it can cause serious problems. But with Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances in hand, those problems are no longer fatal. The book is very well organized; it starts off with problems related to the actual presentation, even possible problems with displays and projectors are discussed. Problems that crop up during the presentation (don't you HATE it when your slides suddenly stop moving forward, or when a graphic that was supposed to show up suddenly doesn't?) are solved right up front, so that you don't have to go digging through the book - a great idea when the CEO is sitting there waiting for you to get on with it. Many problems that people run into are caused by default settings in PowerPoint. (Maybe that's why they call the "default" - de fault is theirs!). Section 2 covers exactly which default settings you need to change, and why. Section 3 covers editing problems, including complaints about some things that Microsoft needs to add to the program. There are also links to some files from some Microsoft PowerPoint MVPs that are very helpful (including some templates). Organizational charts can be a pain in PowerPoint, especially if you're trying to add positions. Tips and tricks for doing that, and other things you may need to do to an org chart, are listed in section 5. Importing sound and video is in section 6; I hate it when my sound effects don't play right, and aren't timed right. Unfortunately, synching sound is NOT something the book can help with - "PowerPoint is simply not designed to perfectly synchronize slides and sound." And that's one thing I love about this book: they aren't afraid to tell you when something just can't be done. Whether it's a feature that Microsoft doesn't have, or something that you just might not WANT to do, you'll find out. And maybe you'll even feel motivated to let the folks out in Redmond know what you wish their product would do for you. Hey, it couldn't hurt! I'm going to be loaning Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances to the senior project advisor at the school where I used to teach. It will save her a LOT of headaches in the weeks to come. But I want it back after the projects are done, because I can see it saving ME some headaches as well. She can buy her own copy. |
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