Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Years ago when I was trying to break into movies as a writer, I worked in law firms as my day job — which is where I fell in love with computers. I loved how easy a word processor made it seem to write well.

Then I met a very successful writer who told me she wrote everything in longhand, because it made her more committed to what she put down on paper.

I was reminded of this when I read my colleague Gene Zelazny's latest version of "Say It With Presentations" — which is once again filled with longhand sketches of his concepts for visuals and only fleeting references to technology, computers or PowerPoint.

The book is also peppered with more sophisticated graphics, and even jokes, that bring home the important points of every aspect of presenting — particularly preparation and brainstorming.

Gene Zelazny is a character. Readers will remember my introduction to his classic, Say It With Charts. I also covered some of his concepts in a piece about visual communication called Taking on Tufte. The fact is that Gene's readers will profit from his 45 years of empowering presenters and his in the trenches knowledge as a management consultant.

Gene's forte is making you actually think before you even use a computer. This is a dying art in the world of multitasking and iPods, but when you take the time to read his books, you realize that in true communication there is no substitute for paying the price and pondering exactly what it is you want to achieve.

His latest book, Say It With Presentations is a very valuable complement to anyone who works with PowerPoint, and particularly any presenter who avoids PowerPoint.

But since our update is about Office, we can say that although PowerPoint is only specifically referenced in this book on one page, the entire book is enormously helpful to anyone who needs to decide what to say and how to say it.

There are three main areas in which Zelazny can help anyone faced with either creating a PowerPoint presentation or just speaking to a group.

In his section on how to Define the Situation, he goes through the preliminary steps that often determine success or failure, but which many presenters overlook — at their peril. This involves research and thinking about the objectives for both the speaker and the audience. Because Gene has been involved in so many actual situations, this section is chock full of real world examples.

In the section on Design, Gene inspires presenters with a multitude of ways to reach an audience — mainly visually, but also with their other senses, including sound (music) and humor.

He also mentions animation in a theoretical way — showing how it can be used to tell a story effectively. Since it is not a PowerPoint book, though, you can learn the actual techniques in our series on Advanced PowerPoint Animation.

Finally in a section on how to Deliver the Presentation, Zelazny becomes a virtual speaker coach. He uses his experience to prepare the reader for a variety of possible eventualities and to master his or her environment. Gene has seen a lot of changes over his career, and it is interesting to read about his experiences with the latest technology like virtual meetings.

One of Gene's many fortes is the ability to see the presentation situation from the audience's perspective. Along these lines his Audience's Bill of Rights is not only funny but very helpful.

Here are some examples of what the audience has a right to expect:

The right to see the reason for my involvement — how many times have you sat through a presentation not knowing why you should care?
The right to know in advance how much time the presentation will take.
The right to be able to read every word on every visual...
The right to hear you from the back of the room.

These are only a few, but they are very helpful in terms of what many coaches will tell you is so important — to be a good host — and sensitive to the needs of your audience.

The section on design can help any presenter connect more deeply in communicating with the audience visually and otherwise. Gene's other books are about many kinds of visuals, but here you can also become inspired in ways to creatively and resourcefully use picture, diagrams and analogies and metaphors. This will lift any presentation out of the doldrums of a tired Title and Bullet snoozefest.

Way too many PowerPoint users open the program as soon as they are given the task of creating a presentation and think that filling up a slide show with the features of PowerPoint will achieve their goals.

Say It With Presentations gives the presenter the mental ammunition he or she needs to construct a slide show that supplements the talk and becomes part of an entire solution to a problem — not only what to say and how to say it but most important — why say anything and what should be accomplished.

PowerPoint users and experts will be stimulated by this book because there are many things they might not have considered but now they will think — I know how to do that with PowerPoint.

That's also the basis of my upcoming book Solving the PowerPoint Predicament (more on that next month). The trap of PowerPoint is in using it ineffectively by not covering the main point — and doing the preliminary brainwork that is necessary to decide how and why to use the program's many features.

If you're already a PowerPoint user, this book helps cover those bases. If you follow along with Zelazny's breezy style and excellent insights, you will never be at a loss for how to best use the electronic tools that you have in your possession, and you will use them to connect with and not turn off your audience.

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