Garr Reynolds has succinctly grasped a pernicious nettle and dislodged a few hoary myths about effective communication in his new book presentationzen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Realising '... that something needed to be done to end the scourge of bad PowerPoint slides and the lifeless narration that accompanies them.' (p. 6), he sets out to illustrate a simpler and more effective approach to communication through presentations.

Keep in mind that the whole thing is about communication: what you need to do and, perhaps more importantly, not do, to make communication effective.

The ten chapters are logically grouped into five areas - introduction, preparation, design, delivery and the next step.

Depending on your philosophical leanings, don't get too caught up or distracted by the 'Zen' context in which he sets out his ideas - look instead at the key ideas themselves.

In the context of planning a presentation I liked his idea of what he called "going analog" (p. 45). Get away from your computer to think about the bigger context in which your presentation is to be made, to identify your key messages and generally tease out your ideas.

One of his key points with which I heartily agree is the need to avoid inadvertently becoming a slave to the software you are using (especially PowerPoint) with its own inherent structural and process constraints.

In discussing at length presentation design (comprising some 20% of the book), Reynolds provides an extensive set of before/after examples to illustrate the key points about the use of text, images, graphics, the interaction between text and images, use of white space, balance, grids and the rule of thirds. The latter will be familiar to readers who are photographers.

A particularly helpful feature comprising Chapter 7: Sample Slides, are examples used by real world presenters , including links to relevant websites. A couple at which I have had a quick look were very worthwhile.

The only downside I struck occurred in the delivery phase of the book where I thought the extensive Zen references and context tended to dominate the key messages he was trying to get across.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has to present something to an audience.

I can't do better than reiterate Reynolds' own advice - enjoy the journey!

(Readers interested in following Reynolds' ideas further should have a look at his website www.presentationzen.com)

Reviewed by Greg Davies
The Apple Users' Society of Melbourne (AUSOM)
www.ausom.net.au

To say "Presentation Zen" is the best book on creating an effective presentation since Jerry Weissman's "Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story" is an understatement. What Garr Reynolds' book accomplishes is to furnish presenters with the tools to make presentations fun and enjoyable again.

Armed with an arsenal against the use of bullets and an army of arguments for the use of compelling visuals, Reynolds walks the talk by making his own book very visually oriented, starting with the presentation-based preface by Guy Kawasaki.

After reading it, I was able to transform a presentation I was going to deliver later this month, packing the essentials of my pitch into 7 slides, none of which had bullets and most of which contained powerful visuals that support the story I will be telling the audience. This change was possible thanks to the advice on this book, so I highly recommend it to any presenter or teacher who wants to breathe life into a presentation.

It doesn't matter what your job is, this is a must read.

We so often forget that the simplest thing is often the best. This book shows how people can get back to basic. I love the fact that this book captures the essence of why effective presenters are so good!

this is truly a great book. Very inspiring. Most presentations today are boring, uninspiring, not to the point. This book truly motivates you to focus on the parts that matter in your presentation, the points that you want to get across. Concise book with good pictures, graphs etc. I also recommend Garr's blog www.presentationzen.com - that's how I became aware of the book in the first place. Definitely worth the read!

I finally had a chance to read Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Garr is a leading authority on presentation design and delivery, advocating his minimalist (or "Zen") approach to presentations. His blog is one of the most visited web sites on the subject.

That's what 50% of this book is about, convincing the army of business managers writing thousands of PowerPoint presentations every day to drop their bullet point slides, take off big corporate logos from their slides and use more images supported by minimal text. It is an important message and I forgive Garr for repeating it many, amny times throughout his book.

The other 50% is focussed around taking the designer approach to presentations. I enjoyed reading backgrounds on Japanese and Zen culture and how they can be applied to good design. I did learn a few things about photo composition.

The book is nicely illustrated with example presentations, and many "before and after" slide transformations.

Having read slide:ology by Nancy Duarte just a few days a go, it is interesting to draw a parallel. Slide:ology contains more practical presentation advice: how to define color schemes, specific examples about slide build up. Presentation Zen adds more on the create design process, esthetics, and photo composition.

I make a lot of presentations at conferences and business meetings. The ratings I receive are almost always Very Good to Excellent.

Over the last decade, these presentations have evolved from PowerPoint to Keynote, and improved incrementally. I'd seen reviews of the book, but did not buy it until getting a recommendation, in a casual conversation at the New Media Expo.

After reading Presentation Zen, I felt the absolute need to redesign ALL my presentations. I reworked the first one, yesterday, and it is light years better than the original.

I can't wait to use it Tuesday, and later this month.

It's near impossible to read this book and not want to take a new direction.

I ditto what all have said. Garr Reynolds created what should be thought of as a Bible for Presentations. One area that has not been addressed in these reviews is the utility of this book for professional (i.e., medical, scientific) presentations. I find that using Reynold's basic tenets for the Introduction and Conclusion of a presentation, and inserting the hard data in the middle creates a novel and arresting change to the typical "Death-by-Powerpoint" scientific presentations. His ideas regarding appropriate ways to present data are eye-opening. I urge professionals to take a walk "outside of the box" and slowly introduce his ideas into your presentations--the improvements will be palpable!

I remember getting my hands on Harvard Graphics way back when and being so excited about how it would revolutionize presentations. But basically, though the software has improved since then, we use it the same way. Reynolds shows it doesn't have to be that way; you don't have to shoot your audience full of bullet points. I think you could probably get the gist of his message by reading his excellent blog - the book could have gone further beyond that, I think. In any case, if you suffer from presentation fatigue in your workplace, show this to your boss and your team members. For sure buy the book if your boss won't be impressed that you found a cool business tip on a blog.

I remember getting my hands on Harvard Graphics way back when and being so excited about how it would revolutionize presentations. But basically, though the software has improved since then, we use it the same way. Reynolds shows it doesn't have to be that way; you don't have to shoot your audience full of bullet points. I think you could probably get the gist of his message by reading his excellent blog - the book could have gone further beyond that, I think. In any case, if you suffer from presentation fatigue in your workplace, show this to your boss and your team members. For sure buy the book if your boss won't be impressed that you found a cool business tip on a blog.

99 percent of PowerPoint presentation sucks. So begins Presentation Zen with an introduction from Guy Kawasaki. Or I should say, the book opens with a presentation from Kawasaki. Before getting to business, author Garr Reynolds explains that Presentation Zen is an approach not a method.

This book doesn't give you step one, two, three. If it did, the book would turn into a method. An approach provides guidelines and direction. Reynolds looks back at the history of PowerPoint along with experts' slamming the software. People forget that PowerPoint is a tool not a method. The templates, however, may be partially at fault for the bad PowerPoint-based presentations we see today.

So Reynolds says we can keep PowerPoint, but we need to dump the templates and their bulleted lists. Instead, presenters need to go for the right brain and left brain instead of leaning on one or the other.

The book contains three parts: preparation, design, and delivery. Preparation explores creativity, limitations, and starting work on the presentation AWAY from the computer ("planning analogy" as Reynolds calls it) using pen and paper, sticky notes or whiteboards. Reynolds shows how stories and examples can help make your ideas sticky with your audience.

He also encourages practicing restraint. It's too easy for us to fall into the trap of using clichés -- not just in words, but in visuals like two hands shaking in front of the globe. Don't do it. Just don't. It's been done and no longer sticks with people. Here the book discusses the use of storyboards.

In design, Reynolds takes the reader on a trip in achieving simplicity, which we know doesn't come easy. The Zen principles come in as Reynolds covers simplicity (kanso), naturalness (shizen) and elegance (shibumi). Rather than adding to the clutter, try removing things from a slide to simplify the message.

I love chapter six because it contains many example slides -- before and after so you can see the power of changing slides from noisy to simple. I learn well from examples and this chapter covers every aspect including balance, empty space, repetition, contrast and more. I value this chapter because it provides a variety of examples covering different topics while chapter seven examples come from other people's presentations -- some you might recognize such as Shift Happens.

The rest of the book offers suggestions on the giving of the presentation. After all, the slides act as an accessory to the presentation. If they're the presentation and contain the whole thing, then cancel it and send the slides to the attendees. Save them a trip and a boring presentation.

Presentation Zen as a whole combines many of the expertise we've seen or heard over the years from other experts. So it's nice to get it in one little book. I've heard some of the ideas and comments, but I also pick up new ones.

The little book contains a neat little package that will help readers throughout the presentation process from beginning with an idea to ending with applause. It'll serve well as a reference or a read from front to back and later referencing. It won't work as the only tool as it only focuses on approach. Some folks need more than that to create a successful presentation.

Garr Ryenolds has hit the target, right smack in the center, on identifying the misuse of software such as PowerPoint in presentations. Reynolds takes us on an enjoyable, enlightening journey of identifying and avoiding "really bad PowerPoint" presentations, replacing them with really good ones! The author knows how to motivate the reader to strive for excellence in presentations, and provides effective methods for doing just that. As a bonus, the book is a delight to read.
Anton J. Lachner, Ph.D., J.D.
Fu Jen Catholic University
Taipei, Repulbic of China in Taiwan

I LOVE this book! It is not only a wonderful and simply laid out way of challenging old assumptions about Power Point presentations and the way we construct them, but it also contains some great philosophy to inspire originality. The book is cleanly laid out, and has application to areas other than just presentations; it makes you think more about the way you present generally and sell your ideas.

Reynolds is generous in his acknowledgement of other writers and people who have inspired him - I have bought most of the other books he refers to and found them extremely useful.

The chapters are presented in way that makes your recollection of them easier, and putting them in the Zen context certainly aids with awareness.

I really do recommend this book to others, and it's worth also taking a look at the related blog for ongoing examples of effective presentations.

My manager and a few on the team have been fans for a long time, including participating on his blog. We bought the book and then had him come to campus to teach in person. Best 8 hours I've spent! Love him, love the book.

I had finished Garr's book in 2 days. I found it inspiring, motivating and well designed.

The book is an easy read with good example slides, designs and lots of useful references.

I suggest this book to everyone who wants to improve the effectiveness of their presentations.

This book is very good on the philosophy behind "designing" presentations. On how to use visuals and how to make your presentation into an engaging story. Unfortunately the book focuses too much on visuals and on (a bit superficial) presentation and design philosophy. Also the author contradicts himself with the last chapters in the book which are completely unneccessary. While in the first half of the book he argues convincingly for less is more. A bit more facts and figures or bulletpoints might help this book. But maybe those are in the handout? I recommend this book for those who are first time presenters or when looking for new twists. But it might be a bit lightweight for people who have to give "deep" presentations.

For anyone tired of putting his or her presentation audiences to sleep, here are some wonderful ideas based on a sound philosophy of visual communication. Highly recommended.

PresentationZen isn't really a book about specific techniques; it's about understanding and applying simple principles from Zen to your overall approach to, preparation for, design of, and delivery of your message.

Garr Reynolds invites the reader into his mind as he prepares a presentation. We see his narrowing down the presentation to a core message, then fleshing out the ideas on white board flows, paper storyboards, and post-its. He explains there are three parts of the presentation - the slides, your notes, and the handout - and how each is approached very differently. He speaks out against what's now acceptable as a "slideument," and how slideumentation is killing presentations at conferences and perpetuating the "Death By PowerPoint" phenomenon.

When he gets to design, he illustrates how three Zen principles - Kanso (Simplicity), Shizen (Naturalness), and Shibumi (Elegance) - can work together to create slides that help convey your message. Other non-Zen principles (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning, enthusiasm, and surprise) are also thoroughly discussed throughout the book, and ultimately applied to his slide design.

Okay, I said the book is about principles rather than techniques... that doesn't mean there is no technique in the book. About half way into the book, Garr shifts into technique and starts showing before and afters to illustrate how the techniques are used to apply the principles. The difference between this book and other "before and after" books is that Garr doesn't just show you one bad example followed by the fix; instead he shows a set of bad slides covering the same content, and a set of different ways the principles and techniques can be applied. There are many pages of example after example (many contributed by other designers and presenters) - if Garr had just published these alone, the book would be worth the price.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who designs, creates, and/or delivers presentations. It is a beautifully crafted book, and provides an insight into a presentation master's mind. Having said all that, here is my only negative comment on the book... too often (especially in the first half of the book), I feel the prose overwhelmed the message. I know another reviewer commented on the lack of text (as if adding text increases the value of a book), but when your message is simplify, the same principles should have been applied to the writing of the book.

First I wanna thanks Amazon for made everthing works. Nice job.
This book is really good. Nice way to learn about presentations and make it much more atractive.

The book gives a very concise and critical guideline for a powerful presentation.

I cranked and tuned my powerpoint slides following the guidelines, got excited and did a straight 5 hours editing. It is a fun process itself.
The presentation was the best I have ever made and I bragged to my colleague that it will knock the audience's clothes off. (well... it did not. and thank goodness. :) )

Read it, practice it, and feel it. The Z of P.

I am a scientist, and I have given hundreds of presentations. I was hoping that this book would be applicable, but it is not. Somehow, the "professional stock photos" suggested cannot convey scientific data. There were no substantive suggestions or guidelines in this book.

Perhaps if you are a motivational speaker "I live in a van by the river" this would be useful.

If you are required to give presentations that convey data (experimental results, financial data) skip this book.

Sorry I wasted my money,
Teresa

This is thought provoking and great for stimulating thought about the way you want to present information at your next meeting.....great read, great ideas and will be using it as a reference book!

In the foreword, Guy Kawasaki said "So open your wallet. And buy it. Then open your mind. And read it. Then open your heart. And do it". I think you should do that with this book, and maybe before that check the presentation of the author at google:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ2vtQCESpk

just to have a taste of the book.

Within half a day after receiving this book I included some of the principles it describes into my presentation. The results are truly remarkable, my thoughts come across much more powerful. Also people smiled after my presentation saying where did you learn to present like this, fun, entertaining and meaningful !

For anyone serious about effective presentations, this is required reading. Once you have read it, prepare to change your presentation approach in a fundamental way. Ask me next year, as I intend to start down the road now incorporating these concepts and expect this will take awhile to become comfortable with. Invaluable.

For years I've been urging my clients (I'm an Executive Speech Coach) to visually simplify the message... and now I have the perfect book to backup my request - Presentation Zen! Garr Reynolds is a master at presentation design - his ability to distill the message and reduce the visual slide noise is invaluable. A must read for every speaker who wants to learn to create a visually impactful presentation.

Garr Reynolds is now an icon for all the presenters (who seriously care about their presentations). Several of the things he talked about is applicable in presentations created for informational purposes. This can be marketing and advertisement, personal branding, book review or anything. However, when it comes to technical presentations, it becomes a different story.

Though this book does not talk about techniques in this area, I believe these can be evolved from the principles presented in the presentation zen. I am curious if Reynolds has started researching about technical presentations and how persentation zen can be extended to address the boredom and save the world.

Overall, a wonderful buy! Remember that you also get some stock images for free with the purchase of this book.

Saranyan
http://saranyan.wordpress.com

In this beautifully designed and well written manifesto, Garr Reynolds illustrates how your presentations can engage and even inspire audiences, with just a little more effort and imagination in the preparation and design stages.

Most presentations we see are lists of bullet points. They are entirely 'left brain.' The best presentations, Reynolds says, use 'whole mind' aptitudes and talents. During preparation, he advises, get away from your computer. Use paper and pen to sketch out rough ideas in the early stages.

Remember that design is not decoration. Design is about making conscious decisions about inclusion and exclusion. Simplicity is powerful. Simplicity 'comes from an intelligent desire for clarity that gets to the essence of an issue, something which is not easy to do.'

Make your audience feel something. Example: You're explaining the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Do you use bullet points, data, and talking points? Or do you show pictures of the wreckage and flooding and human suffering?

The best book on creating great presentations I've ever read. If you're going to read one, this is it. Please watch my presentations and web casts (http://silverlight.net) starting mid-June through the next few months and see if it changes what I do; it had better. Truly a great book, very high signal:noise ration, very hgih quality, well worth taking the time to read.

I've been doing public speaking for twenty-five years, and teaching before that, and I'd guess that I've created hundreds of Powerpoint presentations. But I still gained some great insight into alternative approaches for using Powerpoint from this book.

If you're an advocate of simplicity, this book will resonate with you. It doesn't tell you exactly what to do, or even give you a process (as Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg-Other) does). However, I found that Presentation Zen was much more thought-provoking, and it affected my presentation style much more than Beyond Bullet Points. It has a generous number of examples taken from real presentations, and these really help. It's approach of "here's a typical prosaic way, and here are some better ways" will make you unsatisfied with traditional, boring Powerpoint slides.

It also delves into using Powerpoint as a supporting tool rather than as the central focus of your presentation, and goes beyond Powerpoint into the finer points of presenting. The last section named "delivery" contains two chapters: "The Art of Being Completely Present" and "Connecting with an Audience". They don't really talk about Powerpoint at all (except for some comments on using a slide clicker), instead concentrating on helping you to focus on what's important - making a presentation a good experience for both you and your audience.

The style and philosophy presented work especially well for presentations in which the primary purpose is persuasion. I don't think presenters of technical material (which is what I do) need to dogmatically adopt all of the techniques in this book. But even a technical presentation needs introductory material on why the presentation is important. The audience must be persuaded of that before they'll even pay attention.

I've bought two of these for colleagues, one an experienced presenter in sales/marketing/promotion, and one just starting out in technical presentation. I believe it will help both.

Based on other reviews I thought I would eitehr love this book or hate. It would either be a great source of insights on presenting or a jargon-laden book that could best be described as "clever." Thankfully, it is the former.

Presentation Zen presents a philosophy on presenting rather than a rule book on what each slide should look like (since that will vary based on what you're presenting). And while I was doubtful up front (as you can tell above), the book is very engaging and, with each chapter, you can viaualize how what he is saying will make for better presentations. Of course the essence of what he is saying is pretty simple - communicate clearly and think of your audience- but he speaks clearly about why some of the things we have done for years which seem like they are doing that really are not. Bullet-riddled slides may convey a lot of information, but they are not communicating well or really thinking about your audience. Just putting a report in landscape mode or in PowerPoint does not make it a presentation.

As the title says this book has "simple ideas on presentation design and delivery" which will be immediately useful to anyone with an open-mind about changing what we have been doing to our audiences until this point.

This book is about getting the correct mindset and preparing for a presentation. It's message is that presentations today suck, and it's because we forgot to take the time to think about it.

This book is not about design techniques, but more about the framework of a good design, and laying down the fundamentals and basics before you work your way through your own techniques.

So in summary, if you need a book to convince yourself (and others!) to make good presentations, this book is a must - but if you're already an expert communicator - this book will be just a fun read, but likely you won't gain anything new.

I think that this book show the way to make better presentations, because Reynolds tell about the creation processes: desing (with pencil and paper) and focus her book in practical aspects.

This is an awesome book! Just great.

If you are interested in doing better project presentations, this is an awesome book!

Highly recommend!

Thanks
Bill Dow

When it comes to PowerPoint presentations I've always been guilty of simply grabbing a standard template and pouring in my bullets. I never gave much thought to aesthetics, which is why most of my slides look awful compared to the ones in Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.

I can see why this book sells so extremely well. It's a beautiful work and features all sorts of great, visual examples to help drive home the author's points. Here are just a few of the great lessons I learned from reading this book:

Don't jump right into the slideware tool...lay out your thoughts using pencil and paper first. Better yet, do it with pencil and PostIt Notes. This seemed so backwards to me at first. After all, I've got the computer so why not use it from the start? After reading what the author had to say about this though I can see I'd greatly benefit from this initial step.

How many times have you been asked, "how many slides will you have in your deck?" I get hit with that every time I make a presentation. I love this excerpt from the book: The number of slides is not the point. If your presentation is successful, the audience will have no idea how many slides you used, nor will they care. Obviously you can take this to both extremes, but the point is we should be less focused on the number of slides.

How about these two questions that probably don't get enough serious consideration early on: What's your point? Why does it matter? Again, I frequently get too hung up on what I want to say and not so much on what I think the audience wants to hear about. I'm scheduled to make a presentation to a group of grad students in a few weeks and I'm starting to realize I don't know enough about their interests, goals from the session, etc., to properly frame my talk.

Don't force your logo onto every slide. Wow, that one won't go over well with our corporate communication team, but, it makes a ton of sense. As I think back about all the presentations I've sat through, there seemed to be a direct correlation between the degree of boredom and the number of times the speaker's corporate logo appeared. Seriously, if you look through this book you'll see templates are for losers. The most effective slides have few words/numbers and use an attractive graphic to help reinforce the point.

Look at each slide as a 3x3 grid and focus graphical elements more in the outer portions of the grid or on the intersection points of the vertical/horizontal lines. This one really becomes clear when you see it in action. The book features several wonderful examples that show how this sort of off-center balance is highly effective (and similar to the effect used in photography).

Speaking of images, the book features a list of some of the better stock photo sites. The author's favorite is iStockphoto but I prefer a free alternative called Stock.xchng (also included in the author's list).

Having grown up in Japanese culture, I find it very interesting to view the subject matter from a cultural or spiritual framework such as zen.

I'm also impressed by how well Garr Reynolds treated hard topics like wabi, sabi and shibumi.

A must-read for anyone trying to improve communication skills!

Presentation zen is the kind of book whose message will help you during your whole career. It doesn't give you practical advice on how to craft the perfect set of powerpoint slides. Rather, it raises the right questions about presentation and answers them in an engaging, thought-provoking and well-written way.
If you are a professionnal, you will make a presentation in a few days, weeks or months, so do yourself and your audience a great service and pick up this book.

Nothing particularly exciting nor revelatory going on here. Some nice layouts and references / quotes but at the end of the day it's still powerpoint - like putting lipstick on a pig!

Very high quality teaching material on how to prepare and deliver presentations. Simple, readable, and well illustrated, it doesn't contain a single unnecessary word or image. It was enjoyable enough to read through in my spare moments in a day and come away feeling refreshed and creatively inspired.

Most books on using presentation software seem to start with the assumption that the software makes sense and that organizing content is the secret to a good presentation. Here, Garr Reynolds strips away those assumptions and asks you to think of presentations as they truly are--visual stories. They're more like movies than books and Garr opens up the possibilities through a radically different approach to designing slides.

The book offers many beautiful examples and an engaging and reflective style that inspires you to create truly impactful presentations. These principles are particularly important for government communicators.

This book will change the way you use PowerPoint. It is a must for developing a great presentation. Excellent examples, great writing, and easy to employ ideas. It has opened my eyes and I will forever be changed in my use of PowerPoint slides. My presentations will be just plain better for the audience.

This book will revolutionize the way you present. It includes invaluable tips on how to plan your presentation, simplify your ideas, tell interesting stories, and put together a presentation that will hook your audience. A must read!

I can't add a great deal to the praise already stated for this great little book. It is a quick, easy read, but you have to read it -carefully-. This is about changing how you think about a presentation, not a checklist or a template for giving presentations.

At work, I cringe through many, many "Death b Powerpoint" presentations, and I get compliments from colleagues on mine. They grasp that there is something different about how I present, but they don't understand the philosophy enough to duplicate it. Get this book and all will be clear.

If you present highly technical information, you will have to modify some of the ideas in the book, because it is essential to make some of the slide more substantial, for instance with graphs prepared from a good graphing program (Something like Igor, NOT Excel). However, this is a minor modification, and the backbone of your presentation can follow the philosophy so clearly expressed in this book.

Very highly recommended.

This book is a must. If you are a Power Point serious user, and recognize that you (and the people in the auditorium) are tired with the "standard" way you do your presentations, you must buy and read this beautiful book. You will read it in hours - it is marvelous. I strongly recommend this one.

Garr does a terrific job of explaining the basics of presenting, debunking the current trend of "put an outline on a page and read it". He correctly coaches the reader that the "outline method" (my term, not his) is offensive to the crowd and adds little to the presentation. He presents the information of such researchers as the Heath brothers and Tufte, two giants in the field. While unnecessary for those of us who are very familiar with their work, for anyone else learning about excellence in presentations they are a welcome additional overview.

What makes this book stand apart, however, is Garr's commitment to share with the reader presentation slides and concepts, so that the ideas are brought to life. With as visual as the concepts are, it would have been a huge miss to have not included many examples. He provided this essential linkage and payout to the theories and suggestions his book presents.

My copy is already a bit battered from use, and I suspect it will get more so as time continues. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to take their presentation skills to the next level.

'Presentation Zen' starts with a very bold proposal, you have to change and stop following the way everyone uses PowerPoint, forget bullet points, use of too much text, lot of ideas cramped in one slide, not to use presentation as contents holder, etc.
Like in Zen philosophy, the first things you need to recognize are the flaws in your reality, and then embrace a new way of thinking and doing. In the case of presentations and keynotes, you need to understand how to effectively share ideas (read 'Made To Stick'), and the logic of a changing world (read 'A Whole New Mind'), and apply this to build, simple, emotional, easy to follow presentations.
This book applies, through a lot of analogies, elements of the japanese culture because it stands out about thinking and executing everyday things.
It's not just a book that teaches you a new technique, it encourages your heart and mind to be creative, innovative and free. And the latter its what makes this book even more valuable.

This picks up from Turfte's "Beautiful Evidence" book and more so. If you give presentations at all you need this book. It is so far the best book on Powerpoint (Keynote) I have read. The ideas are not just talked about, you walk through how to do it with plenty of before and after pictures. A very graphical and stunning book. If you have ever felt that your audience was just not getting your message, or you understand why Steve Jobs out presents Bill Gates, or you appreciate the Guy Kawasaki style, then this is the book for you. Buy it, read and use it and do not lend it!

A lot of ideas for presenters accumulated in the book that are useful for entire presentation process, from the beginning when looking for opportunity to make a presentation till the end when on stage presenting the result.

The main idea, the Book gives you APPROACH, NOT strict guidelines; like laws or school rules [you must add this, you must use that]. Don't be confused with that (as I was at the beginning, when started to read), book does not contain any magic tips or openings, that will make you the best presenter in the world. It gives the ideas and experience, that you can use for the advantage.

Book starts with description about ekiben, special type of food that is sold in Japan trains. Author finds ekiben great balanced type of food, which he calls a pleasant way to end the day. Author wonders, where is the problem to make all the presentation in the same way, balanced and harmonized...

You will find plenty of author's thoughts and ideas, that can be very helpful for your future presentations and hints how to find the balance.

Book provides great examples, one of them is from Seth Godinh [if I'm not mistaken], when presenting about pollution in your city, what is better
1) four bullet points about pollution data
or
2) photo of bunch of dead birds, some smog or even diseased lung, and talk give this information enclosed in four bullets.

Which is better and more effective, well I think the answer is clear, and there are others examples too.

There are other examples and ideas, that you may find interesting and learn to make your presentations better (at least it worked for me). However, I'm just rookie in this stuff.

This Book should be placed for your must have category, if you have any relation to presentations.

In this age of information overload and short attention spans, the ability to deliver clear and concise presentations is one of the most important skills.

Instead, business presentations today are mostly long, unfocused and boring. In a typical PowerPoint presentation, the audience is forced to sit through slide after slide of charts, bullet points and text while the presenter reads from the screen.

As a result, both presenter and audience feel stressed and disengaged, and everybody ends up wasting their time (this common situation is also referred to as Death by PowerPoint).

Garr Reynolds' quest to end PowerPoint presentations as we know them started years ago when, riding on the express train from Tokyo to Osaka, he had his epiphany: after watching a Japanese businessman nervously flipping through a printout of poorly designed PowerPoint slides in an obvious state of confusion, he decided to launch his Presentation Zen blog, now the most popular presentation design site on the web.

Presentation Zen (the book) is organized in three main sections:
*Preparation
*Design
*Delivery

In the way of the true classics, this book is more than a simple step by step tutorial. It outlines an approach, a strategy to solve the complex communication issues of today. It not only tells us how to do a presentation, but instead takes us on a journey to discover what is it that we need to communicate in the first place, and how to make it resonate with our audience.

Here are some of the things I learned:

*How to discover your core message (the one thing, and only one, that you want your audience to remember).
*The importance of having quiet time to think. Busyness kills creativity. We all need some quiet time alone to come up with our best ideas.
*Use two often forgotten PowerPoint tools: notes (so you don't have to read from the screen) and handouts (so you don't have to cram all the data on your slides)
*Less is more: remove from slides every single element that is not necessary and doesn't add to our core message.
*PowerPoint is not a document creation tool. It's job is to provide visual aid to our presentation. The slides themselves are not the presentation.
*Images are more powerful than words.

Drinking from his own Kool-Aid, Reynolds packs his book with visual examples of great (and not so great) presentations, so we can see the difference. Also, he summarizes the most important ideas at the end of each chapter, and links to great presentation resources on the web (my favorite is TED, where you can see the great presenters of our time in action).

This book is not for everyone. Those readers who are looking for a few quick tips on how to do a PowerPoint presentation may get impatient with the author's frequent and lengthy references to the Zen philosophy and concepts.

However, if you bear with him, you will learn more than just do a presentation. You will learn how to analyze and solve complex communications problems, how to see the big picture from your customers' perspective, and how to effectively position products and services in the marketplace.

If you have to do presentations for a living (and who doesn't these days?) read this book and keep it handy for future reference. And, while you're at it, add Presentation Zen (the blog) to your blogroll or favorites.

This had a lot of good ideas from the author as well as other sources. It made the points clearly and was really helpful.

I found Presentation Zen disappointing. It seemed to violate in writing style many of the principles it seeks to correct in slide design, reading more like a meandering conversation over drinks than a well-laid-out, step-by-step primer. For example, the book was frustratingly repetitive, with even the simplest points restated through multiple chapters (really, how many times do you have to suggest using post-it notes?). Some central points came and went quietly in sidebars, and others completely lacked explanation or justification (i.e. the rule for using six words maximum per slide). Every time I thought I was about to discover a new and enlightening concrete principle of visual design with valid reasoning, it seemed the point from the previous chapter was repeated instead. Moreover, exceptions or alternate approaches also weren't considered, such as times when using a whopping seven words on a slide might be useful, or when more complex slide builds and transitions could help an audience grasp a concept. In addition, many of the points made in the book, such as the value of "taking risks," seemed obvious and trite.

Overall, like many tedious slide shows I've endured, I felt the book could have been half as long and made its points with the same clarity, and would have showed more respect for the reader's time. To its credit, it does offer some useful ideas on slide design, and some excellent graphic examples. It's also visually appealing, with beautiful slide reprints, tons of "good" and "bad" examples to learn from, and cleanly-designed pages. Still, I'd trade the appealing design for tighter, more solid, more useful content.