Beyond Bullet Points II: Using storyboards to plan your presentation

Beyond Bullet Points III: Delivering your presentation

Movies and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 presentations have a lot in common. Both use spoken words and projected visuals to communicate information, and both seek to engage audience interest throughout an entire experience. But the difference is that movies somehow manage to communicate successfully without bullet points. Their secret? Movies tell stories.

In Cliff Atkinson's book Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire, you can learn how to transform your PowerPoint presentations into stories that captivate your audience's interest. Use the hands-on examples and exercises from this book to strengthen both your PowerPoint presentations and your confidence as a public speaker while you learn professional storytelling techniques and other powerful presentation strategies.

The following tools and resources focus on one of the key concepts in the book: how to use the metaphor of a movie script to build your presentation's message. Using this information, you can begin the process of transforming your message into a story that inspires your audience.

• Take your presentation beyond bullet points in three steps (Article)
  Use these tips from the screenwriting process to make your presentations clear, direct, and engaging.
• Three ground rules for writing your presentation (Article)
  Clarify and improve the way that you word your message by using these ground rules.
• Set the stage for your presentation's story (Article)
  Answer six key questions for your audience with Act I of your presentation: where, when, who, what, why, and how.
• The Beyond Bullet Points story template (Template)
  Apply scriptwriting and classic storytelling techniques to your presentation.
• About the Beyond Bullet Points story template (Article)
  Learn how to use the Beyond Bullet Points story template.