Do not buy wow guide until you read this review

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1. Leddy says

   This book is a thorough, legitimate entry in the presentation guidance field by someone who is clearly a professional immersed on a full-time basis in training would-be presenters. It goes through structuring, preparing and delivering a presentation in exhaustive detail (much more so than most books on PowerPoint), and is chock full of tables, checklists and references to useful material. It also comes with a CD-ROM including many of the sample presentations the author discusses.

   The best way to look at this book is to think of it as a solid, year-long, introductory course at an excellent state university. (“Huh?” I hear you ask…) The unfortunate fact is that most people who give PowerPoint presentations have no training, no conception of what makes for a good presentation, and no skills in either story telling or graphic design. If I had to give an entering letter grade to the clients (mostly corporate CEOs) who come to me for presentation coaching, I would say that the range is from D to C+, with a very rare occasional outlier of a B. This book, if read cover to cover and followed religiously, is pretty much guaranteed to take everyone, no matter what your starting level, up to a B+. And that result would both be doing a major service to humanity, and is something that 90% of Wilder’s corporate readers would be delighted to achieve.

   The problem is that since this book was first written, the bar has been raised on what constitutes a ‘great’ presentation. Heeding Wilder’s advice, while assuring you of a solid set of presentation skills, will also assure that you DON’T hit the ball out of the park. The epitome of presentation quality these days, as represented by the work of people like Nancy Duarte (who did Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and who has written her own presentation book, slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations), Larry Lessig, Hans Rosling, Bill Strickland, Rives, Ze Frank, and others (many of whose presentations can be viewed online at ted dot com), is simply a different beast from the traditional bullet point/diagram slides, no matter how carefully edited or structured. These ‘new world’ presentations break through typical lists and points, and are mostly (if not all) zen-like in their simplicity, serving as *supporting* emotional resonance for the speaker, rather than data that is narrated by the presenter.

   While you probably should buy this book for its in-depth discussion of mechanics and preparation skills, the ‘bible’ of modern presentation design is Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds, whose blog of the same name has become mandatory reading for the world-class presenting crowd. PresentationZen (to return to my analogy) is the Ivy League seminar taught by the world class professor, that will inspire you for the rest of your life.

   If you’re serious about learning to give great presentations, your library should probably include Wilder, certainly include Duarte, and absolutely, positively MUST include Reynolds. Other excellent works to go alongside them on the shelf are Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman and The Articulate Executive: Learn to Look, Act, and Sound Like a Leader by Granville Toogood.

   But whatever you do, read at least one of the above, and take its message to heart. Powerpoint can be sublime when done correctly, and you owe it to your audience to do your best to make it so!

   December 20, 2009, 12:32 am
2. Aburto says

   This third edition is a combination of coaching for presentation format and delivery, and the mechanics of constructing the presentation. Each chapter is complete in itself, and all chapters fit together as a total work. There are many tricks and neat techniques to prepare and deliver a concise presentation, so the audience will consider viewing it to be a good use of their time. Particularly good are the “Power Point Tips” in gray boxes, and the end of chapter checklists. If you follow the author’s methods, your audience will experience the difference.

   December 20, 2009, 12:32 pm
3. Ongkowardojo says

   Tricks and tips for ppt software, computer functions, slide layout, presentation aids and how to hold a cool presentation are worth every Penny of this book. Out of the last three books I have read, this one is the best.

   December 21, 2009, 12:54 am
4. Ranck says

   As a university professor that gives lectures to a wide variety of audiences, in the USA and abroad, this book takes a step-by-step approach to becoming an even more effective speaker. It begins by helping you think through your strategy and provides even the most polished speaker with new tactics and small but so thoughtful tips about using PowerPoint and organizing slide shows. Given the importance of making persuasive presentations, this should be required reading for every manager. I would particularly recommend it for MBA students. They will learn how to give an effective, professional presentation to executives.

   December 21, 2009, 12:45 pm
5. Ahrens says

   It’s easy to forget that truly great presentations did not just come out of thin air – they require lots of hard work. This book outlines a practical approach to work towards success, but it’s not a magic bullet. Practice and incorporation of many of these techniques will make perfect.

   December 22, 2009, 12:21 am
6. Raymond says

   Save your time and the one cent and read Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
   and prepare for the 21st Century global economy with solid sanity.

   December 22, 2009, 12:34 pm
7. Coates says

   If you are stuck in a rut of ordinary, tread-worn practices at your work, this book might help snap you out of your funk.

   But if you are looking for keen insights and practical solutions to real business problems, this definitely will not move you to action.

   I’ve read almost every one of Peters’ books. This one is sub-par.

   Since an author needs to keep publishing to stay on the lecture circuit, this feels like an attempt to augment the Powerpoint slides Peters must have been carting around when this book was published.

   It’s becoming harder to believe what Peters preaches, because everything he does now is so over the top, it’s his new normal.

   I am a huge Tom Peters fan, but being “out there” just to remain relevant is not working anymore.

   December 23, 2009, 12:58 am
8. Venegas says

   Tom Peters’ book is entirely spirited and full of spontaneous ideas for sales. His approach is out of the box, he is not a conformist, leaving me with many ideas to start now!

   The book is written in many short example. Easy to digest each part. Let the concept become a part of you.

   December 23, 2009, 12:24 pm
9. Edmondson says

   This book is okay to read, but while I started reading this book seriously to read it all at once, I just oculdn’t do it at once. It took me lot longer to finish this book than most others — compared to the size of the book, not because the content is bad, but the way it has been written.
   Don’t get me wrong this book is not a waste of time or money, and in fact, points delivered out of this book are well stuck to my brain that I use it regularly, but when you are reading a “Tips” book, it is hard to remember continuously everything thing and use it, so you have to stop and read some other time — more like reading Gita/Bible/Qaran — Absolutely fantastic words of wisdom, but can’t swallow it all at once and by the time your each the end, it is lot longer..

   I was thinking between a 4 star and 5 star for this book, but it ended up with 4 star, because, I didn’t intend this book to be written this way — better set of examples/anectodes would have made the book more interesting to read and remmeber the points easier, forever.

   December 24, 2009, 12:55 am
10. McKeever says

    I can’t put it down! I love his honesty, his say it like you see it and his human approach. Not sure what else to say. It’s on my top 10 list.

    December 24, 2009, 12:45 pm
11. Girard says

    I’ve written code in a lot of different languages, but had never really touched Lua (the language used to write WoW addons).

    I picked up this book hoping that it would give me a good foundation on WoW addon creation, and it did. What I didn’t expect was just how much I’d be going back to the book over and over as an API reference.

    Although Blizzard keeps updating the WoW API, this books extensive reference section covers enough of the fundamentals, that I always start there.

    I can’t say that this book would be the best starting point for anyone who has never programmed before, but then again, creating addons for WoW isn’t really an endeavour for anyone who hasn’t programmed before.

    However, that’s what made this book so great for me. The Lua language and WoWs API are full of eccentricities and “gotchya”s. This book provided a really good “get up to speed quickly”, and functions as an ongoing reference.

    The authors also maintain a website that updates as the WoW API updates.

    December 25, 2009, 12:41 am